


Mahou Shinobi Obito

by Chosha Kurenai (Tarlou)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Development, Crossover, F/M, Good Uchiha Obito, Harry is Obito, Hidden Continent, Kannabi Bridge Mission, Magic vs Jutsu, Ministry of Magic, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Slow Burn, Tags May Change, Uchiha Obito Lives, Well-Meaning Dumbledore, Wizard Obito, Wizards hire Ninja
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-21 20:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11951601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlou/pseuds/Chosha%20Kurenai
Summary: After Harry was orphaned and placed on the Dursleys' doorstep, thanks to a letter she had received a few weeks before, Petunia contacts Harry's other relatives and hands him over to them. After all, Dumbledore's letter had only said he needed to be with family, not which family.Years later, Uchiha Obito discovers mysterious abilities, only to discover that there are more out there with that same power. Hired by wizards to deal with Death Eaters, Team Minato discover the truth about Obito's shadowy past, a past that even Obito was unaware of…(Originally posted on fanfiction.net)





	1. The Birth of an Uchiha

The Dursleys of Number Four Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal. They prided themselves on being the picture of the perfect family and the epitome of everything that was Ordinary. They lived in a good neighbourhood, on a normal street, in a normal house, where there were only mundane problems and happenings. And they were very much content with that.

Mr. Vernon Dursley was a large, beefy, red-faced man with a thick moustache and not much neck. He was the owner of a relatively successful firm called Grunnings, that made drills, and spent many a day shouting, ordering around his employees and complaining about paperwork or people slacking off. Even when he wasn't at work, nothing pleased him more than to complain about the ingrates and weirdoes of society. Mrs. Petunia Dursley, on the other hand, was thin and blonde, almost the opposite of her husband. She was quite proud to be the picture of the perfect housewife, well known for her housekeeping skills, as she always kept her home clean and tidy. She was also proud to know almost all the gossip that happened in their street, her long neck useful to crane over the fences and spy on their unsuspecting neighbours. Vernon and Petunia also had a son named Dudley, and in their 'humble' opinion, there was no finer boy anywhere.

However, there was something not quite so 'Normal' about the Dursleys. It was their deepest, darkest secret. Their biggest fear was that anyone - _anyone_ \- would ever discover it.

A secret that was currently bundled in blankets, staring up at Petunia Dursley with startling bright green eyes from its basket on the kitchen table.

Petunia whimpered.

The child, barely older than her own son, was one Harry Potter, the son of Petunia's estranged sister, Lily Potter. In fact, Petunia had been quite happy to be estranged from said sister. She had even pretended for quite some time that she didn't even _have_ a sister. If the Dursleys were the epitome of everything that was normal, then the Potters were the picture of everything that was _freakish_. Lily had been born with strange powers, and she had married a man that was just as abnormal and strange as Lily herself - which had resulted in this tiny child that was currently on her kitchen table. Petunia had never seen their son prior to this. However, she already knew, without looking, that this boy would be just as weird and unusual as his blasted parents.

She even had the letter to prove it.

The day had started off like any other day (just the way the Dursleys liked it). Petunia had woken up, early as usual, and had got dressed, spending a long time - but not abnormally long - in the bathroom to make sure that she looked her best. After all, one had to look ones best to be the perfect housewife, and she wouldn't want the people on the street to think she was a common slob. After that, she had headed down the stairs to start preparing breakfast and coffee for Vernon once he had woken up, and for Dudley once he had - after all, her precious growing boy shouldn't need to wait for his breakfast.

However, things had distinctly gone downhill the moment she had gone to pick up the milk bottles from the doorstep, only to find that that hadn't been the only thing left on her porch. For, wrapped up in a blanket, a letter slipped in beside it and tucked into a basket was a tiny baby. A baby with bright green eyes, messy black hair-tuft on its head and a strange shaped scar - the shape of a bolt of lightning.

Of course, she reacted the way any ' _normal'_ person would.

The sound of milk bottles smashing and the piercing scream that emitted from Petunia had brought Vernon stumbling down the stairs, tie crooked, shirt half unbuttoned and shaving cream covering half of his face, only to stare dumbly at the situation himself, jaw opened in utter shock. After all, it wasn't every day that you found a baby on your doorstep. Not just any baby, but the baby of your wife's estranged sister.

Once they were able to think clearly, they reacted as one, looking around to see if anyone else had seen the distinctly abnormal event that had taken place on their very porch. Thankfully, as it was still early in the morning, no one had yet seen - they could only hope the baby had been left _after_ the milkman arrived, because who knew what strange rumours that would circulate about them otherwise! Quickly, they dragged the basket inside before they were spotted.

However, they now had a few problems. What was Harry Potter, a boy they had never met, but only vaguely knew existed, be doing at Privet Drive? Specifically, what was he doing on _their_ doorstep? And what exactly were they supposed to do with the boy now? The fact that the baby, with Lily's emerald green eyes, was staring at Petunia as if disappointed in her was deeply unnerving. No baby should have the ability to pull of such a look.

And if Lily thought she could just dump off her freakish brat with normal, law abiding folk like them, then she had another thing coming!

Still, it seemed oddly out of character. Lily was many things, most of them weird and completely unDursleyish, but heartless was not one of them. As much as she disliked her sister and pretended she didn't exist at all, Petunia had to reluctantly admit that Lily was never the type to abandon her son. But Still! She should know better than to infect Petunia's perfectly normal and happy life with her _freakishness_! Especially when she didn't even have the common courtesy to show her face first.

The letter had better have a good reason for all of this, or so help her...

Quickly, Petunia snatched up the envelope, doing her best to ignore the baby's unsettling and unwavering stare and Vernon's nervous pacing, and pulled out the letter from inside. She couldn't help but wrinkle her nose at the parchment letter. Parchment! Who wrote on parchment these days, the weirdoes. Of all the ridiculous things. However, in their current situation, she was willing to overlook that if it would tell her what on earth was going on and what to do with that baby that was still drilling holes into her back with its god-damned stare!

Shivering, she began to read.

However, rather than greeted with Lily's neat and tidy handwriting that she had been expecting, she was instead faced with a strange, unfamiliar loopy script that certainly did not belong to her sister. Somewhat flummoxed, she began to read. And the more she read, the paler she got, until she dropped onto one of the kitchen chairs heavily, feeling faint.

"Pet? Pet, what's wrong?" Vernon managed anxiously, wringing his hands. "What does it say? Does it say why...why _it's_ here?" he flapped a meaty hand in the direction of the Potter's brat.

"She...she's dead," Petunia managed weakly, feeling numb. The numbness, however, was soon replaced by indignation. "She went and got herself and that cookie husband of hers blown up. Blown up! And this...this crackpot wants us to look after her brat!" She fumed, even Vernon cowering slightly in the face of her wrath.

How _dare_ she do something so inconsiderate? Not to mention the blasted woman had even _told_ her that she and her lot were having some kind of trouble in an unwanted letter only a week before. If she knew she was having trouble, then she should have just gone to the police (if her kind even _had_ some kind of law enforcement) instead of burdening honest and hardworking regular people.

"And who does this...this..." She referred to the letter once again; face contorting with disgust, "this _Albus Dumbledore_ ," Ugh, even the name sounded freakish, "think he is, dumping him here!"

"Can't we just get rid of it?" Vernon demanded nervously. He had heard about his sister-in-law's... _abnormalities_ and he certainly didn't want his precious Dudley to be exposed to something like that. "Drop it off at an orphanage or something?"

"No!" Petunia exploded, practically crumpling the letter in her fist. "That...that _man_ ," she shook the letter, "said he would be in... _correspondence_ , if the brat wasn't left with family. And if we dropped the boy off and the neighbours found out, what do you think they'll say? I don't want that man gracing my doorstep!"

She jumped up and paced for a moment, nibbling on her lip. "Still, he did say he had to be with some sort of blood family, but not _what_ blood family." She said finally, cogs turning in her brain. Perhaps...perhaps there was a way out of this dratted situation after all!

"So, there's other family?"

"Not _my_ family, but _he's_ got some other family," Petunia jerked her head towards Harry, "at least that's what _she_ said in that letter a week ago."

"Then why did they drop the brat off here then?" Vernon bristled.

"Apparently, they're hidden," Petunia sniffed. She would have been happy if they stayed that way too. Only weirdoes and criminals hid away. However, unless she wanted a walking abnormality plaguing them and ruining their perfectly normal life, then she was going to have to get in touch with the Potter man's family. As it was, it wouldn't be too hard, as she knew exactly how to contact them, so they could get rid of the brat and get on with their lives as if this never happened.

A week before all of this, Petunia had a letter and parcel from Lily of all people. This had been rather strange in and of itself, mainly because they had pretty much agreed never to contact each other and to get on with their lives pretending that the other didn't exist (a deal Petunia had been very happy to enforce). However, the reason for the breaking of the unvoiced vow soon became clear when she read it.

 _Dear Petunia,_ (the letter read)

_I know that you would rather you never heard from me again, but please, do not throw this letter away. If you can do that for me, then I promise not to bother you again. However, if you do get contacted by 'my kind' again, then please, consider this to be my last Will and Testament._

_As you may or may not know, a man called 'Voldemort' has been terrorising 'My kind' for some time now and James and I have become targets. There is a chance that, even though we are going into hiding, something might happen to James and I. I don't want to ask you to look after my son, Harry, if anything does happen to us. You have often shown your distaste of what we've been able to do and it's not fair on you or Harry if that's the case. So, I've made some arrangements._

_If something does happen to James and I, and Harry is, for some reason, placed into your care, then please, open the parcel that came with this letter (if you haven't already) and use what's inside. Inside are instructions in how to contact some of James' remaining family on his mother's side - the Uchiha family. They have agreed to take him in if something does happen. Please keep the package safe and use it only if Harry is placed with you, if you feel your animosity towards me and 'my kind' would affect Harry's care._

_I am aware that it is likely we can never reconcile, as much as I'd like to. However, if something does happen to us, I do hope that at least you have the heart and love your sister enough that, at the very least, you will follow through these last wishes of mine, for both your sake, and the sake of Harry, my most precious son._

_Thank you, Petunia...and goodbye,_

_Lily_

Petunia had no idea what compelled her to read the letter when she recognised the handwriting on the address, never mind what possessed her to _keep_ the letter and the parcel (unopened) in the cupboard under the stairs for safekeeping. But now, she was glad she had. If she had thrown it away, or otherwise destroyed it, she would have had no way of contacting any of those... _Uchiha_ people, who could actually take the boy off her hands, and she would have been forced to raise the blasted boy herself. She shuddered at the thought of the freakish child anywhere near her darling Dudley. Still, that Albus Dumbledore couldn't complain about it if the boy was being taken care of by his family, even if that family wasn't hers, and she, in turn, could happily get back to her own normal life without a care in the world.

Striding passed Vernon, Petunia hurried to the cupboard and pulled out the package that had come along with Lily's letter and brought them both back to the kitchen, ignoring Vernon's spluttered confusion - he hadn't been there when the letter arrived, having been at work at the time and Petunia had never mentioned it in hopes that it would eventually gather dust and she could forget all about it - opening it with careful fingers. After all, with _those_ people you could never be too careful. She wouldn't be surprised if the dratted thing exploded or something. However, the parcel did not, in fact, explode. Nor did anything else happen other than two objects slipping out of the wrapping, along with an envelope.

The first object was cylindrical and, upon closer inspection, seemed to be rolled-up scroll, only about the length of one's hand from wrist to fingertip. The cover was a deep royal blue and was sealed shut with a strange insignia that reminded her of a table tennis racket. The top half of the racket was red, while the bottom half (along with the 'handle' of the racket) was white. The second object was a thin white tube with a screw top, barely the length of her smallest finger.

 _Typical_. Of course, it couldn't be a _phone_.

Quickly, Petunia snatched up the envelope first, hoping that this was the instructions, because unless that scroll had some kind of telephone number inside (which she highly doubted since Lily's kind could never be that normal) then she had no idea what she was supposed to do with the dratted things.

_Dear Petunia,_

_If you are reading this then the worst has come to pass: James and I are dead, and for whatever reason, my son, Harry, has been left in your care. As we both know how you feel about 'my kind', if Harry's Godfather, Sirius, is unable to take care of him - if he was, then Harry would not have been left with you, I promise - then my husband's maternal family, the Uchiha family, has agreed to take him in. In order to get in contact with them, you must use the blood-_

"Blood?" Petunia gasped, feeling faint.

Vernon seemed to be righteously indignant on his wife's behalf. "Blood? That's barbaric! No wonder you wanted nothing to do with that lot!"

Still, if it would keep her from having to interact with that lot ever again, then she could force herself to do it as long as she wouldn't have to do any creepy voodoo crap or something. It would be a tiny sacrifice in the long run to keep her perfectly normal life (and once it was done she could pretend this day never happened). So, with a deep, shaky breath, she ploughed on.

 _In order to get in contact with them, you must use the blood_ (Petunia shuddered again) _contained in the vial provided and run the blood along the symbol that is sealing the scroll I sent alongside this letter, shut. Once the scroll has opened, please write inside,_ ' _This is Petunia Dursley, in accordance to James and Lily Potter's wishes'. Once that is done, you should receive some kind of correspondence from the Uchiha family, who will arrange a meeting to take Harry from your hands._

_I know these instructions sound very strange, but please, follow them, for your sake and for Harry's._

_Lily_

Petunia gnawed on her lip once more. She wished that she wouldn't have to go through something so...so _barbaric_ as this. Oh, she hoped to god that no one else found out that she did it, either! (she would, in future, put it down to a moment of madness. She had no idea what compelled her to do it. Maybe her kind could force normal-minded people to do such things without them actually wanting to? Yes, that had to be it). But before she could second guess herself, she picked up the tube and opened it, trying not to gag at the coppery scent as crimson smeared over the seal. Oh, she wanted to fling the scroll away, wash her hands over and over to rid any trace of blood, because she felt utterly dirty, like she had unwillingly taken part in some satanic ritual. But the sooner this was done and the boy was gone, the sooner that all this madness could be put behind them. Still, it worked, as Lily had said. The scroll fell open in front of her, as if there hadn't been anything sealing it closed at all.

With a shaky breath, more thankful than she could put into words that Vernon's large hands were squeezing her shoulder to comfort her through the trauma, Petunia took a pen (she damned well hoped she wasn't supposed to write in blood as well, because that was where she would most certainly draw the line) and quickly wrote down the words Lily had quoted.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, to Petunia's utter astonishment, the words seemed to vanish on the scroll completely. She rubbed her eyes and checked the scroll again. Still, no words. It was almost as if she never written anything at all. That was, until new words appeared in a very different hand than her own, and most certainly using a different tool to write with.

_So, the worst has occurred. The boy shall be taken into our care. We know where you are. Expect us._

The note was left unsigned.

Petunia couldn't help but quake slightly at the thought as Vernon also read over her shoulder, the colour draining from her face. When she glanced up at her husband, it appeared he wasn't doing much better either. She'd never seen his face so white.

"Vernon," Petunia said, voice quivering despite herself. This was too weird, too weird for anyone, but _especially_ too weird for the Dursleys, "How...how could they possibly know where we live? You don't think they're watching the house?" It was like something from one of those horror movies that had a stalker in them.

"Watching- spying- might be following us," muttered Vernon wildly. Not that Petunia could blame him when people they had never even met, related to that...that _Potter_ had just told them that they knew where they were.

"Or maybe...maybe _she_ gave them the address?" Petunia tried, wanting to find something normal in this situation, something not so goddamned disturbing after everything that had happened today. It had been one shock after another and it couldn't possibly do their hearts any good.

"How dare they give out our address to...to people like _them_ ," Vernon fumed, glaring at the Potters' boy as if it was all his fault. Well, technically it was. Still...

"But if they take the boy away..." Petunia said, drawing a deep, shuddering breath. "Vernon?"

"Yes?"

"After this, I think we should move. There's some lovely houses advertised in the newspaper, in some nice, _normal_ areas."

"Definitely," Vernon grunted.

In the meantime, it appeared that they would have to look after Harry as well as Dudley until those Uchiha people arrived. Vernon was certainly not impressed. After all, couldn't her lot just show up with some kind of instant teleportation or something like that? However, Petunia thought that it would be far stranger if any of the neighbours saw that. She could only hope that, when they did show up, they dressed normally, so that they wouldn't have to bother with the stares or the questions that they might get asked otherwise.

Petunia was honestly at a loss as to what to do with the boy, to be honest. He was just...completely unlike Dudley, with those big green eyes that just watched her unnervingly, Lily's eyes in a face unlike hers. He was unnaturally quiet, too. Petunia wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing, but it certainly made the boy seem even weirder.

Once, she had even found a biscuit floating in the air into the boy's hand and she almost screamed the place down.

Those Uchiha people couldn't get here soon enough!

In an effort to keep her reputation - not to mention sanity - Petunia left the boy in the cupboard under the stairs for a while in punishment. Hopefully that would teach him to use that...that _unnaturalness_ in the house

However, it was a few months later - November had long gone, passing through December and January until the month had turned to February - before they heard anything else after that the strange incident with the message in the scroll. In fact, Petunia was beginning to think that Lily had pulled some kind of sick trick on her, if it wasn't for the fact that she knew that Lily was dead. Perhaps these people just had to sort out documents or make travel arrangements or something, but still! They should have at least kept them informed, because Petunia seriously did not know what to do with Lily's little hell-spawn.

Her trials finally came to an end late evening on February tenth, when there was a knock at the door, at a time that was rather late (and rather rude) for someone to be expecting a polite reply. Since Petunia was busy with Dudley - who needed the attention, poor dear, considering how she had needed to spare some of it (however minutely) on their unwanted houseguest - Vernon had hauled himself from his chair and stomped, grumbling, to the door, most likely to tell off the people who had come at such a strange time.

Oddly, after the door opened, she really didn't hear much of anything, which was rather odd, since she half expected to hear Vernon telling off whoever it was for disturbing them. Yet there was barely a sound.

_Wait, maybe..._

Licking her suddenly dry lips, Petunia placed Dudley in his play pen - who immediately started to throw his toys in Harry's direction in a tantrum - and made her way to the front door, only to freeze slightly at the sight she was met with.

Vernon was glowering at three figures that were standing at the door, one female, two males. Each of them with dark hair and fair skin that showed a distinct similarity to that Potter she had seen the few times Lily had brought him home and that bore a resemblance to the boy as well. They wore odd clothes that seemed almost military like and at the same time made her think of eastern martial arts movies. Their eyes were all dark, almost pitch black in colour and had an odd, cold intensity that made her shudder. Much like Harry's - even though they were more like deep dark caves than emerald pools - they seemed almost able to look right through her, leaving her feeling exposed. On their foreheads, they wore odd headbands with a metal plate on the front, each bearing a similar symbol on it, resembling a strange, stylised leaf. Were they all part of a cult or some kind of weird group? But the thing that drew her attention the most was a different symbol that she spotted on the sleeve of the grim-faced man at the front - the same table-tennis racket shape that had sealed that scroll shut.

Immediately, she knew...these had to be the Uchiha people that Lily had mentioned in her letter. The ones related to that James Potter.

As Petunia gasped slightly, the dark eyes snapped in her direction, freezing her in place for a moment as she somehow forgot how to _breathe_.

"You are Petunia Dursley, correct?" the man at the front said, in a thick accent that she couldn't quite place.

"Y-yes..." she managed to gasp out finally, once she realised that she had yet to actually take a breath since they looked at her. "P-please, come in," she offered, if only to get them off the doorstep before people noticed and ended up questioning her as to why three grim faced (but very good looking) people had been there so late at night.

"We do not wish to make this unpleasant for you, but we came here for the child and the child only." The man said shortly. Obviously, he was keen not to be seen around here either...something they could both agree on. "If you could get him, then we will be on our way."

"O-of course," Petunia stuttered, somehow managing to leave, feeling weak at the knees. How could those people seem so intense? She had to take a few deep breaths to steady herself before she headed back into the living room once more, taking Harry out of the playpen. The boy looked at her with those unnerving eyes again and Petunia shuddered.

_He's leaving soon. I only have to put up with it for a little longer_

That in mind, she headed back into the hall and, avoiding those piercing eyes, handed the boy over with barely a second thought. The lead man nodded to the female of the group, who stepped forwards and carefully took the baby from her, offering it a small smile that had the baby gurgle something pleasantly at the attention. As she adjusted Harry into a more comfortable place on her hip, both baby and woman's eyes softening, that piercing effect tamed somewhat. Petunia also handed over the letter of explanation that Albus Dumbledore had left her as well. Maybe they'd make more of the weird explanation that the man had left than she could.

"Anything else?" the lead man said, pulling Petunia from her thoughts.

"N-no..."

"Then we'll be leaving," the man said. Nodding to the other two, they, as one, turned and leapt away in a manner that Petunia wasn't even sure a human could do, vanishing into the darkness so fast it was almost as if they had never been there, leaving Petunia and Vernon gob-smacked, but very much alone by their open front door. It was almost as if the entire exchange had been merely a dream.

"...Close the door, Vernon..." Petunia said finally, once her brain had started working again, making her way back into the living room and picked up Dudley once more, ignoring his squirming and whining in her arms as she cradled him. It was done. The brat was gone, and with it, the last of the weirdness. Things could finally go back to normal. Hopefully, the ache in her chest would leave as well. Not knowing that, already a good mile away, the three Uchiha were talking.

"What is his name?"

"Harry Potter."

"A weak name for a Shinobi. He will need a new name. From now on, his name is...Uchiha Obito."

**To Be Continued...**


	2. The Life of Obito

Uchiha Obito always knew he was somewhat different from his fellow Uchiha. Sure, he had the same dark hair that seemed to like its own style (his liking to stick up every which-way) and he had the same pale skin that all those from his family had. But there were still a few things that marked him out as different.

For one, he had bright green eyes, like emeralds. No one in his family had emerald green eyes like him. In fact, all the Uchiha that Obito knew in their rather large and extended family, have deep onyx eyes. Also, unlike the rest of the family, who, thanks to the potential of the Sharingan, had the sharpest eyes in the world (except for perhaps the Hyuuga Clan), Obito had found that his sight became blurrier as he started to grow up. He never told anyone though, because honestly, he was already something of a disappointing Uchiha. The last thing that Obito needed was his family to know just how disappointing he really was. After all, the Uchiha clan were full of the best of the best, full of geniuses and prodigies.

Obito was...neither.

That wasn't to say Uchiha Obito was an idiot. He was actually quite bright.

He had to be to be able to keep up with his schooling without anyone in his family being the wiser, despite the fact that he couldn't see all that well. If he could actually see properly, Obito likely would have been at least above average, because once he actually understood what he was supposed to be reading, and then Obito did pick things up fairly quickly.

However, growing up, Obito always felt as though something much greater than 'average' or even 'above average' was expected of him. As if they expected him to be some kind of super prodigy or something. He had no idea why, but he felt it had something to do with the odd scar on his forehead that was the shape of a lightning bolt. They would always look at that lightning bolt before shooting him a disappointed look, if Obito failed to live up to whatever ungodly expectations they had of him.

Honestly, Obito thought that scar was pretty cool at first. No one he had ever met had a scar that shape (though he'd seen some pretty damned weird shaped scars). He was told he had got it as a baby, when his parents had died, though it was never exactly explained how, and the subject was often changed if he did. However, it felt as if that scar meant that there was something extraordinary they desired from him and, honestly, Obito grew to dislike that scar as much as he once liked it. The scar represented some kind of expectation that Obito could never reach, and the heart aching disappointment he got from the family he wanted to have acknowledge him when he couldn't reach that high.

As soon as Obito was old enough to understand that, he made sure to grow his fringe long enough to cover the dratted thing just so he didn't have to feel as though someone had stabbed him in the stomach and twisted it every time someone gave him that look.

Even if he had been a prodigy, however, Obito was sure he would have stood out, simply because he was different than much of his family anyway, and not just in appearance. Most of the Uchiha were strict, stoic and controlled, rarely open with their emotions, unless in private, and always coming across as model shinobi.

Obito, however, really couldn't make himself act like that. It just felt weird. He couldn't stand still for so long without feeling restless; he couldn't suppress his emotions without feeling like his face would cramp up from the effort. It was just...un-Obito-like. It made him _tired_ to seem all uptight when he was naturally carefree, really. Sure, he could brood like the next Uchiha, but it didn't mean he could constantly stay like that.

Still, at least with the kids his age in the village, even if he was weird for an Uchiha, there were people there far, far stranger than him. Not to mention that they never had some high expectation for him. Of course, they seemed to be on the opposite side of the spectrum, where they just...didn't expect anything from him. That would have been even worse, except...well, at least one person believed wholeheartedly that he could reach his goals, and he loved her for that.

_And they were five, Grandma, stop talking about grandkids!_

Well, he supposed his oddness in personality could be blamed on his grandmother's teasing nature sometimes, especially since she tended to look after him when his official fosterer, Tsuneo, was away on missions more often than not. She would say that she found looking after Obito a joy. Though even she could stay still as a rock if needed...

Either way, Obito knew that, one day, he would fulfil his dream to become Hokage and truly be acknowledged by them all as himself, not the Obito they thought he was.

Although...he could have done without all the weird things that had a tendency of happening around him.

No, he didn't mean Maitou Gai in his green spandex and his proclamations of youthfulness (though he could have done without that too).

What he meant was just that odd things usually happened to him that he could never really explain (and often happened at the most annoying of times that always seemed to make him late to just about everything).

For example, one day he was getting yelled at by one of his many uncles after he had accidentally set fire to a wall in the compound. Not that the fire was unexplainable. Obito had just been trying to practice his fire jutsu and had misjudged how much chakra to use so made the fireball a lot bigger than he intended, as such, burning his uncle's wall. No, what couldn't be explained was about half way through the dressing down, the man's hair turned bright pink. And not just any pink, but a bright, florescent pink.

Obito had practically stopped listening to the telling off in order to stare in horror at the man's hair, and it was only when the man realised he was staring that he realised something was wrong.

The scream when he found out though was truly impressive. Apparently even the Hyuuga, who lived practically the other side of Konoha, had come rushing out of their compound thinking that something was wrong and someone was attacking.

The incident made him at least an hour late for his first day at the ninja academy.

Not that anyone believed him when he tried to explain why he had been late.

Another time he managed to screw up on a jump when he had been helping an old lady to rescue her cat that had got stuck. He got the cat down fine, but he managed to jump wrong when he was getting down himself, only to suddenly find himself clinging to the highest part of Konoha's tallest tree with no knowledge with how exactly he managed to get up there. Surely the wind hadn't been that strong that it had carried him all the way up there. It took him an hour to get down and, of course, made him late again. But it didn't help that he really couldn't explain how he had managed to get up the tallest tree in the first place. Once again, no one believed him.

Obito also managed to have the most haircuts out of anyone, not only in his family, but probably in the entire village. Grandmother Oboro, once, had huffed and suggested that they should probably just get him to grow his hair out like some of the other Uchiha did, though she would stubbornly refuse to stop trying to keep it short, even if she did complain each time. Tsuneo, who had been home at the time, both jokingly and exasperatedly said that if they did let it grow it would probably just trip him up instead.

Both of them were dorks, sometimes, even if they were Uchiha.

Several months after Obito joined the academy, however, they finally realised that there was definitely something up with Obito's eyes. Not because the colouring was wrong, but it was noticed that Obito was having trouble actually focusing his eyes properly.

The way the two had acted, you would have thought the world had ended. His grandmother had almost burst into tears (if it wasn't for Uchiha pride) and Tsuneo was grim faced - the house practically felt oppressive.

Tsunade, the Slug Sannin and one of the healers at Konoha Hospital had looked him over and sadly proclaimed that unless his eyes were transplanted, she wouldn't be able to really fix the problems with his eyes. However, she had made goggles for Obito to use to help him to be able to see, since glasses could fall of when he was training, or on missions once he graduated from the academy, and considering there was a lot of tensions going on between Konoha and Iwa at the time, that seemed to have even more of a reason why the goggles would be better used than glasses.

Thus, from that day on, Obito wore prescription goggles and the world around him came into focus, but his relationship with his foster family, however, became distant.

If it had been anyone else's family, they would probably have been a bit upset that he hadn't told them, but would get him the prescription goggles and get it over with, but of course, his family was Uchiha. Having stigmatism was practically the ultimate shame of the Uchiha, who prided themselves on their superior eyesight even without the Sharingan. Obviously, Obito's near-sightedness indicated that he would never gain the clan bloodline.

Oboro and Tsuneo were never strict as the rest of the family, nor did they see him as some failure of an Uchiha as some of those closer to the head family did, but he could still tell they weren't sure how to react to the news. They were still nice to him, and didn't shun him, but there was this look in their eyes that hurt, it hurt so much to look at that Obito could barely stand it.

It was the first time that, instead of annoyance, Obito actually felt deeply ashamed by his family's disappointment in him, and it almost physically ached to see it reflected each time he met their eyes. For a time, Obito avoided home as much as possible. He didn't want to think or feel the looks he would get as if he had somehow failed, trying to convince himself that, honestly, he didn't need the Sharingan. He had to be fairly good a ninja for being able to do what he could half blind and if that's the case, and then maybe that made him better. Besides, his parents hadn't activated their Sharingan, from what he had been told. Neither had Oboro, nor Tsuneo and they lived just fine (of course they weren't half blind as well...)

He almost had himself convinced too. Almost. As long as he didn't have to face his family's disappointment. He could hold himself together though. He was too stubborn to quit after all - which was a good thing as he had to focus a lot on being able to properly catch up to where he should be now that he could actually see, even if he needed to wear his goggles almost constantly.

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

With Obito's life, considering the pure amount of weirdness that happened to him, he should have known that nothing remained static and that, honestly, he should expect the unexpected, because unexpected things always, always happened to Obito, be they bad or good.

Only this time, the change was certainly bad.

It was one day when he was eight, he had come home from the academy to find his grandmother, white faced and shaking as she stared at a letter she had received. Tsuneo had been away on a mission for a while and it had been only Obito and Oboro in the house, both of them more or less trying to avoid each other to try and keep the tension at a minimal. Still, to see her, face buried in her hands, Obito knew that something terrible must have happened.

Pulling on his goggles, Obito pulled the letter towards him and read, his face falling as he did so.

Tsuneo had been injured on a mission, irrevocably and mortally so, when he had jumped in the way of one of his Uchiha team mates to protect him from some behind attack. He likely wouldn't last long, according to the medic ninja of the team, even if he made it back. Still, Tsuneo, even on his death's door, had asked to be returned home anyway, wanting to at least impart final words to his mother and his fostered child.

Lump in his throat, Obito reached forwards and touched his grandmother's arm, tears building in his eyes. Their distance had hurt before this, but even so, Tsuneo was still around. But now, he was dying, and it hurt to see his grandmother sobbing.

"Grandma...I..."

To his shock, Oboro had whipped around and pulled Obito into her arms, sobbing into his shoulder and the eight-year-old could only stand there, back tense and eyes wide, not sure what to do as his shoulder began to get soaked. Squeezing his own eyes shut as tears fell from his eyes, Obito could only hug his grandmother back to offer her some kind of comfort, his heart aching in return.

In the face of their distress, their distance had finally fallen away as they clung to each other, finding solace in their embrace.

It was with grim faces that the Uchiha, all dressed in black, greeted their returning members and Tsuneo was brought back on a stretcher. He had known he was going to die anyway, the medics had confirmed it, so had made the choice to at least die in his own home. As was tradition, the man's closest family were permitted to stay with him until he passed away, and Tsuneo was quite adamant about following the practice.

Once everyone had left, Oboro had immediately knelt by his side and taken his hand, face pained as she bent down to him and Tsuneo whispered whatever it was he wanted to tell her as his final requests and Obito himself felt extremely awkward and out of place as he knelt further away, hands clenched on his knees as he tried to look at anything but them. He felt as if he was intruding upon some intimate moment that should only be shared between two people. Not to mention he was already close to crying anyway. He didn't want to disappoint Tsuneo even more just before he died by suddenly bawling because of the poignancy of the moment.

"Obito," His grandmother said shakily and Obito tensed, looking back over at them.

"Uh...yes?" he stammered.

"Tsuneo...has something to say to you."

Lump rising in his throat so that he could barely speak, Obito nodded and stood up, hesitating before he gathered his courage and headed to the dying man's side, kneeling beside him. "W-what is it?" he managed to croak out, uncomfortably.

Tsuneo reached up and gently touched Obito's cheek and Obito almost flinched. Cold...so cold...The hands that he remembered were never that cold. They were always warm and quick and clever, showing him how to throw kunai or quickly writing up a report or skilfully eating with chopsticks without dropping a single grain of rice. They shouldn't be so pale and quivering like that. It was hard not to break down into a sob as he covered that hand with his own, hoping desperately just to get a little more warmth in there.

"Obito..." He sighed softly, voice barely more than a whisper. "I'm sorry..."

"W-why are you apologising?" Obito managed to choke out, trying to smile for him, but failed miserably, barely managing to get past a grimace. "You don't have to apologise...just...just get better..."

Even as he said it, he knew it was impossible.

"No...I do," Tsuneo denied. "I've been unfair to you. You've always tried so hard...so hard to make us proud of you...even when you found out about your eyes...you never gave in...I should have spent more time with you...told you that I...I was never...disappointed in you. You have a great future ahead of you, I'm sure of it...I only regret that I was rarely a part of it while I was able to..." He moved his hand from Obito's and brushed the rim of the boy's goggles. "But I...want to do something for you...to make it up to you for those times. I will...give you my eyes, Obito, to help fix your sight..."

"But...but, I-!"

"No, Obito. Listen to me. I have no more use for these eyes...but I'd rather that they be used by you. Take my eyes, Obito. And with them, do great things. Become strong...That way, I can... see the future you make for yourself with you...Let them help you...since I cannot..." he offered Obito a small smile. "That is...my last wish...to the child who I should have called 'My Son'."

Unable to hold back the tears any longer, Obito merely clung to Tsuneo's hand and sobbed. It was the first time that Tsuneo had ever called him that. And now, it was likely the last.

Obito never knew his real parents, but if his heart tore to shreds because this was what it was truly like to lose one, he, for once, was glad he never had known them. And now he was losing a man that, while he wasn't there often, had still been like a father to him in turn.

"Dad..." He croaked.

There was no way that he could turn down this last request. The last request of his father.

That very day, a medical ninja in the Uchiha clan was brought in and in a delicate operation, Obito's emerald green eyes were removed and, in their place, Tsuneo's onyx black ones. His new eyes were wrapped with bandages and he was told not to remove them for a while, since his new eyes would be very sensitive for a time. It was weird, being completely blind, eyes forced to remain closed and bandages covering any form of light. Even when his eyesight had been at its worst, Obito had at least seen blurry images and light and colour, even if it wasn't focused. He felt rather exposed in a way, and it was hard to have to feel dependent on someone to make sure he didn't walk into someone or something. Thankfully, Oboro had taken it upon herself to act as his guide until it was safe enough for him to be able to open Tsuneo's eyes and see the world anew. On the plus side, this meant he didn't have to go to the academy for a little while, partly for his eyes to recover and partly until the mourning period was over.

Only a day or two after the operation, Tsuneo himself died, a smile on his face even with his now empty eye sockets bandaged. Obito's wasn't allowed to see the funeral that he attended, not wanting to get ash and heat from the funeral pyre into his eyes when they were still new and his body adjusting to them. Though he could feel it. He could feel other Uchiha standing around him, knowing that all their faces were stoic and grim as the blaze of the pyre consumed Tsuneo's body, destroying everything that his _father_ was in fire and smoke.

All except for the eyes. Obito's eyes that remained closed behind the bandages. Even so, he could feel the tears rising and spilling, dampening the cloth that covered them.

"Are you crying, Obito?"

No," he lied to whoever it was that asked, the first of many lies he would tell to cover up tears that sprung in these eyes. Tsu- no, his _father's_ eyes shouldn't be seen to be crying, even as his body was being reduced to ashes. "The smell of the smoke just makes my eyes water. They're still a bit sensitive, you know?"

Later that evening, Obito had asked to be allowed to be taken to the top of the Hokage monument. Despite her confusion to the request, his grandmother had, indeed, taken him there without asking too many questions. For that he was glad. It would have been hard to explain that the first sight that Obito wanted to see was the sight of the village his father had fought hard to protect - that he would, in turn, become Hokage to protect.

There, Obito finally reached up and unwrapped the bandages that had covered his eyes for the past few days, the cloth unravelling and, finally, slipping into a small pile on the ground. Taking a deep breath, Obito finally opened his now onyx eyes to the world.

Konohagakure no Sato had always looked pretty in the sunset. With Tsuneo's sharp eyes, without his goggles obscuring anything, the Village Hidden in the Leaves was beautiful in the orange glow of the setting sun. Looking over that village, Obito closed his hand into a fist.

_Dad, if you can hear me, wherever you are, I promise, I'll do my best. I'm going to become a strong ninja, just you wait and see. And I'm going to awaken the Sharingan in these eyes for you! I will fulfil your last wish and become strong! Just you watch me!_

And Uchiha Obito never went back on is word.

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

It was when Obito was nine that he graduated the ninja academy, despite his almost constant tardiness. Obito's new eyes had been serving him pretty well even without the Sharingan. Obito still wore goggles too, but these ones didn't have any prescription lenses any more. He had both gotten used to wearing goggles, and at the same time he wanted nothing to happen to his eyes. After all, Tsuneo hadn't gifted his eyes to him just for Obito to go and get them damaged. So, he always wore his goggles on his forehead, ready to pull down over his eyes if he needed to. And now, with his hitae-ate covering that lightning-bolt scar of his, he felt that he would get those disappointed looks from his clan perhaps a little less often.

At this point, tensions between Konoha and Iwa had started to become to full war, and many ninja were graduating a lot faster than normal - most would graduate at twelve after all in peaceful times. But everyone, even the academy students knew that Konoha could use all the help it could get.

Obito's team, however, was a little special. And not just because he was placed on a team with Nohara Rin either, though that definitely made his heart flip. Obito had known Rin for many years, even before he had joined the academy. She was pretty and smart, and would become a medic to rival Tsunade someday, he was sure, but more than that, Rin had always been there for him. She had never got upset with Oboro's teasing about grandkids, nor did she pick on him when he had difficulties with the work, but would always cheer him on and encourage him if he ever felt down. She was even the reason he managed to attend the academy at all after his tardiness on the first day, having picked up the paperwork he had missed along with the entrance ceremony. The fact he was on the same team as her was practically a dream come true.

But, even though that was the highlight of the team, in Obito's opinion, the main reason why the team was special was because they had a prodigy: Hatake Kakashi.

Once upon a time, they had been in the same class. However, it was soon apparent that Kakashi was in a league of his own, soon shooting to the top of the class, not just in his scores, but in popularity. Not only that, he graduated in that single year. On top of that, he also became a Chunin at six.

The other reason why the team was special was because of the sensei. Between the two of them, Obito liked this reason far more.

The only word that Obito could ever think in relation to Minato-sensei was 'awesome'. He was one of the strongest Jonin in the village, not to mention one of the fastest. He wasn't known as the Yellow Flash for nothing. He had some special jutsu that meant he moved so fast that all you noticed of him was a flash of his bright blonde hair. He was calm and collected in a way Obito was used to from the Uchiha, but unlike the Uchiha, while fully aware of his skills, he never came across as arrogant or stuck up. He never gloated, never put down anyone who was weaker than him, and was always kind and soft spoken, but at the same time, could be commanding with only a few words. Obito could only wish that he could be like him, and even though Obito could be late and had to hastily try and explain himself, Minato never accused him of lying unless he really _was_ lying. He never spoke to him or looked at him in a way that made him think that he was accusing him either (unless he actually was lying because Obito had thought the truth was far, far too unbelievable, but somehow, Minato seemed to know if he did lie). He believed Obito's weird-but-true stories that he told him as he tried to explain how he'd been helping someone out, or doing something when strange or bizarre things happened.

Obito looked up to him far more than he would ever admit, far more than he'd ever looked up to anyone. Honestly, he couldn't imagine anyone else being his teacher.

Kakashi on the other hand...well, he certainly could have done without him. Unfeeling and blunt to almost seeming arrogant, it drove Obito up the wall. And he knew it wasn't just because he was jealous that Rin seemed to have some kind of feelings for him either (and he would deny that to hell and back if anyone asked if he was jealous, dammit!) but he would grumble at her and treat them both with contempt, as if he didn't know why he was even teaming up with them. And it wasn't as though Rin ever spoke badly of him - she was nice to everyone! And while Obito was not beyond shooting complaints at the other boy's show-off tendencies and ability to show him up all the damned time, Kakashi barely ever acknowledged those. Unfortunately, he never acknowledged the few times Obito gave him credit where it was due. No, Kakashi had to be a complete and utter bastard about just about everything.

If Kakashi wasn't a Chunin already, Obito would have pummelled him into next week and back every time he saw the flicker of hurt in Rin's eyes from Kakashi's harsh words.

Once he got his Sharingan - because, dammit, he would get that Sharingan one day! - Obito promised himself that he was going to go through with that threat and give him the extra middle finger by surpassing him and rubbing it in his face for once.

Now that he thought about it...looking back, it was a miracle that they could work together long enough to even pass Minato-sensei's bell test.

He actually kind of felt sorry for Minato-sensei himself who also had to put up with every argument that started. He'd apologise to him some day, try to think of something to make it up to him. Maybe a book or something - Minato-sensei loved to read.

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

When Obito, Rin and Kakashi were eleven years old (the fact they survived all their missions without killing each other, never mind the enemy killing them was nothing short of a miracle. Obito could only think it was Minato-sensei's influence and Obito's own weird luck that they even got that far) both Obito and Rin finally caught up to their resident 'prodigy' and were promoted to Chunin. Not that it was quite the same as it would have been had they were in peaceful times. In peaceful times, they would hold Chunin exams because there were fewer times that they would be put into situations that Genin would be in over their heads in, but in war time, it happened all the damned time. As soon as an enemy ninja saw you wearing a Konoha hitae-ate (or maybe it was because they saw them with the Yellow Flash who had a 'Kill on Sight' then later, even 'flee on sight' - not that some Shinobi listened - in the Bingo Book because he was just _that_ good, in Obito's humble opinion) they would come at you all Kunai and jutsu blazing.

Thus, it was no surprise really that the Hokage ended up promoting them after their missions kept getting bumped up to higher levels because they kept running into these guys.

Still, Chunin rank was Chunin rank and justly earned. At least Kakashi couldn't complain he was stuck with two Genin anymore. Not that it really stopped him from complaining about other things and generally driving Obito to the point he flew off the handle. Honestly, didn't the white-haired bastard have anything better to do than moan about how 'inadequate' they were as ninja, even if it wasn't true?

How Minato-sensei put up with it he had no idea. It had to be practice. Either that or some incredibly useful jutsu he made up that didn't require any signs and temporarily deafened himself for a while.

Obito was betting on the latter.

Still, he had gone this long without killing Kakashi, he could keep going. He just wished he knew what put that stick that rivalled most Uchiha ones up his ass. Because if it weren't for the obvious differences in appearance, one would have thought it was Kakashi who was the Uchiha and not Obito.

However, it wasn't until he was thirteen years old that he discovered the truth about that. The truth about Kakashi and the White Fang of Konoha. It wasn't until he was thirteen that Obito learned the truth of anything at all.

It all started the day everything fell apart, and was reborn anew.

It all started with that mission. The mission to destroy Kannabi Bridge. The mission that started everything...

**To Be Continued...**


	3. The Fateful Mission: Part One

He should have known that this day, at the very least, would be the start of something extremely unexpected that would go far, far past any of the unexpected things that had happened during the thirteen years that made up the life of Uchiha Obito. Deceptively, it had started like most days. He had got up, showered and dressed, received a message for a mission at such and such a time and to meet up at their usual rendezvous spot. Admittedly, the message that he had gotten was short, quick and to the point, but at the same time, it looked like it would be rather important. There weren't any other details there (they were in war time after all, it wouldn't do to have the message intercepted), however, he was sure that Minato-sensei would tell them when they met up exactly what was going to happen. He had gone out early (as he usually tried to do, since there was normally something that held him up if he didn't and he didn't want to end up three hours late or something on a mission day). As usual, something did indeed come to his attention. An old woman with white hair pulled back into a bun and a hunched figure was struggling with her bags, barely able to carry anything until one slipped from her grasp and fell to the ground, sending apples rolling everywhere.

"Oh...oh dear..." The old woman moaned wispily, trying to bend to get the fallen items, but was obviously struggling, bones creaking under the strain and she winced, putting a hand to her back in pain.

Seeing her strain made his heart go out to her, and he was soon at her side, helping to pick up the items and put them into the bag again. "Here, let me do it," he said kindly, waving for her to not put herself or her back out. Besides, as much as D-ranked missions were boring in comparison to everything else during war time and he was a Chunin now (meaning, thankfully, he didn't have to do D-ranks any more), it wasn't as though he hated helping people out. It warmed his heart to see the gratification people had when he did something to help them. It made him feel pretty good to know everything that he was doing was having some kind of impact. It was what made him want to work so hard after all to complete the missions (and not strangle Kakashi every two minutes).

"Here you go," Obito said brightly, holding the bag out to her.

"Oh!" the woman said, wrinkled face breaking into a smile. "Thank you, young man. I see you're a ninja too. Keep up the good work," she added.

"Thanks," Obito nodded in return. After all, the civilians counted on the ninja for their protection within the village. Speaking of ninja, he checked the sun's position. He had time and the woman was having problems with those bags... "Hey, do you need help with those? You looked like you were struggling."

"I don't want to be a bother, you must have lots of important things to do, Shinobi-kun."

"No, no, it's no problem at all!" Obito waved it off. "I've got time before my mission," he said, sweeping up the bags and positioned them in his arms. "You just tell me where we need to be going."

"You're such a gentleman," the old woman chuckled, but she did seem extremely relieved to have her burdens removed from her so Obito was glad. People rarely smiled these days. Mind you there was lots of people who were dying, or at least knew there was a high chance of them not surviving. Even the elite of the Uchiha clan weren't completely immune from it either. No one really close to him had been killed yet, thankfully, not since his father anyway. His grandmother, of course, hadn't been in active service for a while now, though she fussed over him constantly when he was at home. But he knew of second or third cousins who had died. The war had been going on for a long time, too long and even the best of the best were going to feel the strain. If he could put a few smiles on a few faces, then Obito would be happy.

The walk to the Old Woman's place was slower than Obito would have liked, but they got there in surprisingly good time considering his companions lightly decrepit form, but eventually they came to her home and she let him in. Carefully, Obito made his way inside and deposited the bags on the table for her.

"There you go," Obito said.

"Thank you, Uchiha-kun," the woman said gratefully. Wait, how did she know his name? Maybe she noticed the Uchiha clan symbol on his back, so he guessed it wasn't really that hard to figure out, now he thought about it. The symbol was rather obvious to those who lived in the village after all (and even to some who didn't) "Wait here a moment, there is something I want to give you for your help."

"Ah...but my mission...?" Honestly, he hadn't really been expecting anything. He just thought he'd do the good deed before he hurried off.

"It won't take too long," the woman insisted and ambled into one of the other rooms. Obito chewed on his lip slightly, crossing his arms as he glanced at the clock ticking away on the wall. It was ok. He could still make it in time as long as it didn't take the woman too long getting whatever it was that she was getting him. Thankfully for him, it didn't seem to take the woman long before she came back and pressed something into Obito's fingerless-gloved hand. "Here you are," she said as Obito blinked, looking at it carefully. It wasn't anything special really, but Obito recognized what it was straight away. "It's a good luck charm," she told him. "To help keep you safe on your missions. It would be such a shame to lose such a good young man."

Obito felt his face heat up slightly at that and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Thanks. Well, I better get going then. I have to meet up with my team mates now."

"Do your best," the woman added brightly, waving to him as Obito left the house, glancing down at the charm once more. It was...kind of nice, really. Most Uchiha would have scoffed at it, but Obito, at least, appreciated the gift. He'd seen Rin happily sewing away at one before, only a week earlier.

His heart sunk slightly as he remembered exactly who she was sewing it for...

Quickly, he slapped his face with both hands. "Argh, stop thinking of that!" he growled at himself. "Mission first, mission first. You'll end up getting bitched at by Kakashi if you end up late again."

Shoving the little charm into his pocket, he leapt off quickly.

He had got about half way to the meeting area when his eyes started to sting. Swearing, he pulled to a stop and rubbed his eyes carefully. Maybe it was because his eyes were his fathers and not his own, but Obito always found he had some problem with them. Normally that they were overly sensitive, or dry. And he didn't just mean overly sensitive in that something got in them would make them water either, even if he did blame it on that a lot. He just had problems holding back tears. He could have a brave face and everything, but his eyes would prickle and water. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought it was Tsuneo crying in his place, if it weren't for the fact that the man had never been that expressive, even if his emotional range had been greater than the collective tea-spoon the rest of the Uchiha seemed to have. No wonder Kakashi thought he was a cry-baby, but he doubted that Kakashi would ever not think it was his fault. Sure, he never told his team that his eyes weren't his own (though he doubted Rin had forgotten his eyes hadn't always been black), but he doubted Kakashi would believe him if he did.

He never believed him.

What was worse was when they weren't watering; they dried up so damned quickly! Cursing under his breath, Obito pulled out some eye drops and carefully started to put them in his eyes. He wouldn't be much good if his eyes were stinging the entire time.

All of this was quite ordinary for Obito. Routine even - well, except for the little gift in return for the help, but even that really wasn't strange or anything.

It was what happened after that that went right through the top of his weird-o-meter.

_"You really are so noisy."_

Obito jumped, pulling out a kunai and whipping around. "Who's there!" he ordered. He hoped to god it wasn't some enemy ninja. Last thing he needed was to be caught on his own, especially in war time. Still, he was a Chunin. He wasn't incompetent.

" _Silly Humans never look up."_

"What?" Obito looked up, coming face to face with the snout of a snake, who flicked its tongue out at him. "Gah!" Obito leapt back, before practically sighing with relief. At least it wasn't a ninja creeping up on him. That was, of course, before he really considered exactly all the facts of this situation together. "Wait..." Still, the facts did indeed register.

A Snake had just talked to him. A Snake.

Now, Obito might not know much about animals in general other than the basics that they had been forced to read up on (and Obito had finally started to close up on the studies that he had fallen behind on due to the stigmatism in his previous eyes), but he was preeeetty damned sure that snakes do not talk. Now lots of weird things were prone to happening to Obito, but this one just took the cake.

_A Summon,_ He told himself, scrambling for any semblance of sanity in this situation, because seriously, he was too young to go insane with the strain of being a ninja yet. _It's got to be a summon._ But the only person that he heard of who had a contract with snakes was Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin. But why would Orochimaru send a Snake summon to him? It wasn't as though he was in the right rank, or strong, or smart enough to gain one of the Sannin's attention, but maybe he was over thinking things? Maybe the summon just...lived here?

But wait, that didn't seem right either. Sure, Obito wasn't the expert of Summons or anything like that, but he had paid attention Minato-sensei when he explained about his own Toad summons after Obito had seen him summon one the first time, and he was sure Minato-sensei had said something about them living in some kind of extremely remote areas or some kind of weird pocket dimension or...or something.

_Ok, calm down,_ he ordered himself. _Panicking isn't going to get you anywhere._

"Are you a Summon?"

_"A what?"_

... _Well there goes that idea..._

"How are you even speaking human language?" Obito tried again.

_"I'm not,"_ The snake said, almost amused. _"You're the one speaking snake."_

"...Come again?"

_"You're speaking snake, didn't you know?"_

Obito stared at it for a moment before the entire insanity of the situation crashed down on him like a ton of bricks.

"WHAT!"

_"I just told you that you're speaking-"_

"That's not what I meant, dammit!" Obito howled, before grabbing the startled serpent by the neck and yanking it closer. "What the hell do you mean I'm speaking snake? I can't be speaking snake! Uchiha don't have that bloodline and I'm an Uchiha! I Don't. Speak. Snake!"

_"Then what are you doing right now?"_

"Listening to a hallucination because I've finally cracked!" Obito exclaimed, letting the snake go. The snake yelped as it crashed down to the floor. Obviously, Obito grabbing it had startled it enough that its coils hadn't been wrapped tightly enough around the tree, so that, when Obito unexpectedly let go, it crashed to the ground. Obito started to pace, ignoring the snake swearing at him rather impressively. Had Obito not been close to freaking out, he would have been rather impressed by just how creative the snake could be with its insults. "Or...or I ate something funny last night! Or I've caught some sort of 'Youthful' virus off Gai! Or, or maybe even Kakashi got to the point where he poisoned me so he wouldn't have to deal with me or something and this is all some kind of weird fevered dream!"

_"You're talking like an idiot."_

"Well, I don't know about you but that's kind of what mad people do!"

...But wait, mad people didn't know they were mad, so if Obito knew he was mad, did that make him sane?

...

"That doesn't make any sense!" he wailed, ruffling his hair rapidly in frustration.

_"No need to tell me twice,"_ The snake grumbled. _"It's not like I've spoken to a human before. Are all humans this...weird?"_

However, Obito ignored it, going back to pacing once more. Maybe there was some logical explanation behind this that Obito wasn't thinking about. For all he knew, there might be something that had caused such a thing rather than madness. The charm that old lady gave him? Doubtful, unless it had been coated in something weird, but it was still possible. He'd have to ask Minato-sens-

Obito paused as soon as he registered exactly what he just thought.

_Minato-sensei...Wait...Minato-sensei...the mission..._

Obito checked the time.

"Dammit, not again! I'm gonna be late!"

Without a second thought, he darted off, leaving the snake lying on the ground where he'd left it.

_"...How rude."_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Indeed, he was late yet again, just as he thought he would be, when he finally stumbled into the meeting area, only to be greeted by Kakashi's disdainful half-lidded gaze. Of course, Kakashi soon launched into lecture mode.

"When did you think we were meeting?" Kakashi was saying shortly. "For a full-fledged Shinobi, you should follow the rules and regulations to the letter."

_Not this again..._ Obito mentally groaned, trying to readjust his goggles once more. For as long as the Uchiha had been his team mate, Kakashi had always been a stickler for the rules. And always seemed to enjoy pointing them out every chance he got. Obito was willing to bet that Kakashi slept with the Shinobi book of rules under his pillow or something, because the guy could recite them in his sleep if he wanted to.

Sighing, he, once again, tried to explain just why he had been late in the first place. "Look, on the way I stopped to help an elderly lady with her bags... And you know, there was something in my eye, but when I stopped, there was this snake-"

Kakashi scoffed, eyes narrowing. "Yeah, right. That's a lie, isn't it?"

_I don't know why I even bother..._ Obito frowned bitterly. _It's not as if he ever believes me._

"Don't say that, Kakashi," a soothing voice came from nearby and Obito glanced over to see their sensei sitting on one of the large rocks nearby with a slight smile on his face. His bright blonde hair and warm blue eyes were honestly hard to miss, and Obito couldn't help but feel the bitterness starting to fade, because when he looked at those blue eyes of his teacher, he didn't see any accusations, or disbelief. The fact that someone believed him calmed him surprisingly easily. Then again, Namikaze Minato just had that kind of presence about him. "You helped the old lady, didn't you, Obito?"

"I even carried her bags," Obito added brightly. It was really hard to stay mad, even with Kakashi, when Minato was there after all. "Actually, Minato-sensei-"

"Sensei, you're too easy on him," Kakashi interrupted, shooting Obito a look out of the corner of his eye, but Obito set his jaw, knowing that Kakashi wasn't going to let him ask about the snake or 'continue his lie'. Huffing, he checked his pouch to make sure, in everything that happened, he hadn't lost his eye drops, trying to ignore the guy, though it was hard when he knew that he was just trying to get him in even more misfortune. "If he keeps acting up like this around people, they'll just be in trouble, right?" He turned to Obito again, sternly, before glancing back to Minato again. "Those who break the rules and regulations are called trash. Right?"

Minato gave a weak chuckle at that. Maybe he was getting irritated by all of this rules and regulation talk? Obito certainly was, and he totally couldn't blame the man, whose patience was practically saint-like in Obito's opinion, if he was getting fed up with it too.

"Jeez, Kakashi, can't you ever be nice?" Obito snorted. "It's always about these 'Rules' and 'Regulations' and crap with you. It's getting annoying. The main thing is discipline." Ok, maybe he wasn't exactly the poster boy where discipline was concerned either, but that's what Obito had always been taught by the Uchiha and they weren't elites for nothing, so it had to count for something. Besides, it wasn't like he didn't try, because if it wasn't for the stupid incidences that always seemed to happen to him at the most inopportune moments, he felt he would be pretty disciplined in other things.

"Come on now, don't you two ever let up? We're all on the same team here," came a new voice and Obito looked up to see Rin. The medic kunoichi of their team, once more, being the mediator and he felt a little guilty for putting her out again, but it was hard to get on with Kakashi, honestly. It was almost like the two of them were cats and dogs, because Obito just didn't know how to deal with Kakashi's constant talk of the rules all the time.

Kakashi snorted, but let it drop somewhat. "You're too soft on Obito, Rin," he sighed. "Today's a very important day for me."

_Huh?_ Obito wracked his brains, trying to think why today would be important at all, even as Rin agreed - damn, why did that snake incident have to throw him so out of balance? _Is it his birthday or something?_

That didn't seem right, because Kakashi always seemed to avoid anything to do with his birthday the few times the team attempted to celebrate it (the only reason Obito even went along with the attempts was because it was fun to see Kakashi trying to escape Minato the entire time, or, even more funny, when he was trying to escape from Minato's girlfriend, Kushina, who was usually the one, along with Rin, to get the idea in the first place).

Minato must have seen the look of confusion on Obito's face, because he elaborated for him as they set out. "Starting today, Kakashi is a Jonin, like me," he said and Obito glanced at Kakashi, resisting the urge to snort. Ok, he could see the Jonin part, if he squinted real hard and tilted his head a little, but be like Minato in any other way, he really couldn't see that. "So, to make the mission more efficient, we're going to be split into two teams, since Konoha's military power has reached an all-time low now."

"Split up? Then..." _Don't tell me..._

"Yes, that's right," Minato said, offering a slight smile. "With Kakashi as you captain, you'll form a three-man cell, and I'll be alone.

Great... Just what he needed, a captain that Obito would much rather strangle than to listen to, much less follow orders. _Suck it up, Obito, it won't be forever..._ He reminded himself.

"Didn't we have a talk about this before, Obito?" Rin asked. "When we discussed getting a present for Kakashi?"

Crap... Honestly, he completely forgot about it. After all, he honestly would rather not think about Kakashi if he didn't have to, but now he remembered why he had seen Rin doing that sewing now. "...Sorry. I wasn't listening," He said quietly, trying to ignore the stab of guilt.

That stab of guilt became a bit more persistent, however, when Minato brightly brought out an odd shaped Kunai with a flourish. It had three prongs to the blade, and odd markings down the handle. Seals maybe? Though he couldn't think of what they'd be used for. Then Rin stepped up with the medical kit she had made up for Kakashi (now he knew where that charm that she had been making had gone. His heart sunk a little)

He frowned, sticking his hand into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around the charm that the old woman had given him. Maybe he could give him that? At least he wouldn't have to look at the disappointment on their faces. He got enough of that from the other clan members. But...he already knew that there was no way that Kakashi would take it. He'd probably just throw it back in his face somehow. Obito would rather keep his pride. Though if it was coated in something, it would be somewhat amusing to see his reactions to hearing animals talk. Shame he'd never take something that wasn't practical.

He was broken out of his thoughts when a hand suddenly appeared in his line of vision and Obito tensed, realizing Kakashi was waiting expectantly, as if he was supposed to give him something instead of it being his choice. "What do you want, exactly?" he snorted. "I didn't get anything for you."

Kakashi cocked an eyebrow (the only part of his face that Obito was ever likely to find any kind of emotion off) "Well, whatever, it's not like you'd give me anything decent anyway. Anything you would have brought would have just become useless baggage"

_And there's that damned attitude right there_ , Obito thought bitterly. "How the hell you became a Jonin is beyond me!" he shot at him. He was pretty damned glad he didn't hand him the good luck charm now, but maybe he should just stuff it in his mouth along with that stupid cloth mask or something and see what happened next.

"You're one to talk."

Obito grit his teeth and clenched his fists. Was he trying to instigate that he couldn't even see Obito as a Chunin? "I am an Uchiha and I will surpass you!" Obito snapped. "As soon as this Sharingan awakens-!"

"The Uchiha clan's supposed to be a group of elites, right?" Kakashi drawled. "I guess they expected too much of you when they entrusted you with a title like that."

The ache of the looks of disappointment that he constantly remembered when he couldn't live up to their expectations flashed in his mind and clenched at his heart. He knew, he knew that Kakashi was just making a blind stab in the dark, and was just trying to piss him off, but even then, Kakashi's aim was true. He felt his eyes prickle, but he refused to let Kakashi know just how deadly his aim was. "You-!"

"Stop it you two!" Rin exclaimed, coming between the two and pushing them back from each other before it could turn physical.

It was hard, really hard, to get a control of himself after that, but he forced himself to put down his fists, though his nails dug into his palm in an effort not to upset Rin more by punching the smug bastard's face in.

Thankfully, Minato spoke. "Okay, can I explain the mission now?" he had that commanding tone in his voice and it immediately drained Obito's anger and replaced it with guilt. Of course, they were on a mission right now... "We're almost at the border now."

Quickly, they came to a good place to stop for a rest while they could at the same time be filled in on the plans. Carefully, Minato spread out a map onto the rock between them. The map showed the main part of the middle of the continent, where most of the borders to Fire country and the surrounding countries were located. Carefully, Minato pointed it out to them as Obito and his team mates crouched down to listen in to the plans.

"It's this line," Minato said once they were all settled. "Right now, the Earth Country is invading Kusagakure no Sato. Of course, the enemy are Iwagakure ninja. We have intel that there's already a thousand ninja on the front line.

_A thousand...?_   It was hard to think of that many ninja on the front line. Obito frowned. "They're advancing a lot faster than before. If they keep advancing like that..."

"The Fire country borders Kusagakure no Sato," Kakashi said grimly. "So, if we wait, it's going to be too late.

"Based on the way they're advancing, they must have some pretty solid rear support too, right?" Rin added seriously as she looked over the markings on the map.

"Well, our mission this time is here," Minato said, pointing out a marking on the map. "Kannabi bridge. In order to strike back at the enemy, we need a lot of manpower. To be able to do this, we, the few select ninja, are going to sabotage them."

"The bridge..." Kakashi murmured, before glancing over to their teacher. "So, it's a stealth mission?"

"Mm," Minato nodded, face grave. "Team Kakashi, your mission is to infiltrate the enemy's back line, then to blow up the bridge they're using for supplies before withdrawing.

"Right," Obito nodded in understanding as the others did. It was a fairly simple sounding mission, though saying it and doing it would be two different things in the long run. Still... "What about you, Sensei?" he asked quietly. After all, he wasn't about to let anyone who might be scouting the area overhear him.

"I will engage the front directly. It will divert them away from you," Minato explained and Obito had to swallow back a protest. After all, this was Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash he was talking to here. If anyone could pull that off and get out of there alive, it was him.

Minato glanced over them, seeing they all understood what was going on before he continued. "Well, this is Kakashi's first mission as captain, so we'll go together towards the border, but once we're there, we'll split up and begin our mission."

He held out his hand into the centre and Obito quickly caught on, placing his hand over the top of it, followed by Rin's, then Kakashi's.

"Right."

As simple as the Mission had sounded, Obito really should have guessed that, after the strange incident that morning, this mission was going to have a much bigger impact on all their lives that he had thought.

**To Be Continued...**


	4. The Fateful Mission: Part Two

Obito knew there were some pretty odd areas in fire country that seemed to be far different to the rest of the surrounding area. One of his friends, Anko, had shown him where the Forest of Death Training grounds were once; though they never went inside. They had only been newly made Genin at the time, so they wouldn't have been allowed. Plus, seeing a Fire Country tiger the size of a horse taking down an insect the size of a dog, they decided it was probably a good idea to stay on the other side of the fence â€“ or at least, Obito had and practically had to drag Anko away before her teacher decided to find them. Obito was under Orochimaru's radar and would very much like to stay that way instead of angering him by not stopping his pupil from being an idiot.

The place they were in now had that same, really strange, feeling that Obito had when he first saw the foreboding area that the Forest of Death had been when he was nine, though, thankfully, without any giant animals or insects roaming around. The forest itself was made of thick trees that reached high up in the sky that you would almost break your neck trying to see where they reached, and mushrooms, even larger than Obito with Rin, Kakashi and Sensei on his shoulders, grew from them, creating thick, slightly squashy-looking platforms.

 _This is one of the oddest places I've ever been to..._ Obito couldn't help but think as he followed behind his team mates, his dark eyes looking around for anything that might be dangerous. Just because he hadn't seen some kind of freaky animal yet didn't mean that there wasn't going to be one.

At least he had Minato-sensei walking behind him so he wasn't forever needing to look over is back.

However, when Kakashi froze in place and put his hand up, Obito felt his heart sink. He really needed to not think things that would actually go and happen. As much as Obito fought with Kakashi, he did know the other boy had some pretty sharp senses, and he was a Jonin, newly made or not, and even if he hated the guy as a person, he could still respect those skills.

Quickly, they moved behind one of the thick gnarled tree roots. Carefully, Minato knelt and pressed his finger to the ground, obviously concentrating. "He's alone...Hm..." he murmured to himself, before pulling his finger away and looking across at his students. "There are about twenty enemies. It's probably a bunch of Kage Bunshin."

 _I've so got to ask how he does that,_ Obito couldn't help but think, making a mental note to ask after this mission was over.

"Looks like it," Kakashi agreed. Though how he knew, Obito didn't know. Maybe he was just agreeing? Or maybe he could smell them, like an Inuzuka clan member? Or a dog. "Sensei, I'll go in first. Please cover me."

... _Say what?_ Obito couldn't help but look at Kakashi in surprise. Normally, Kakashi was quite happy to go along with Minato-sensei's idea, or at least to hear him out on a plan first before adding his two cents in. If anything, though, Minato-sensei was the most experienced of them. Obito just thought it would make more sense for Minato to go in first and have Kakashi cover him. _What the heck is he thinking?_ He couldn't help but think, and not for the first time either.

Even more surprising to Obito was that Minato actually seemed to agree with Obito's unspoken thought.

"Don't be too hasty, Kakashi," Minato said quietly. "You should just be the backup."

However, Kakashi was already running through some hand seals, and not in a pattern that Obito recognised either. "Sensei," he drawled. "I'm the captain today, right?" Seals done, he lowered his hand and gripped it with the other one and an odd sound began to come from the chakra that Obito could literally see at this point even without the Sharingan. Was that some kind of elemental jutsu? Whatever it was, it wasn't one that Obito had ever seen before, and the chakra was still building. "Besides, now's a good time to try out the new Jutsu I've been developing."

_What? New Jutsu?_

"Chidori!"

An ear-splitting sound of chirruping and screeching birds pierced the air as the Chakra crackled brightly with white-blue light and even though the light was almost blinding, Obito couldn't help but gape. _..._ _What is that Jutsu...?_ He couldn't help it. It was hard to think that Kakashi himself had developed such a thing. How long had he been working on that? When had he even had the time? Obito was beginning to wonder if the team genius even ate or slept at all if he was spending his days on missions and developing something like that when he wasn't.

Even so, Minato threw out his hand to stop Kakashi going out there just yet. Oddly, Kakashi, for all of his talk of following rules and the like, actually started to 'question' Minato's actions. Or at least argued. If Obito's jaw hadn't dropped before, it certainly had now. Honestly, what was going on with him?

"It doesn't matter how many enemies there are, this'll be over in a flash," Kakashi argued flatly. "It's the same as your nickname. Besides, it's like you said, sensei...the leader of this mission is me. It's a rule that a team must follow its leader's orders. Right, sensei?"

... _Ouch..._ _Seriously, I thought he normally only threw those rule books at me, but he's doing it to Sensei too?_

Minato sighed, pulling his hand away and closing his eyes, whether it be in agreement to his student's words, or in reluctance, Obito didn't know. Kakashi, however, either didn't notice the effect his words had, or didn't care, because he was off before anyone could say anything else, the odd chakra literally decimating the root, leaving both Obito and Rin to just gape at the hole he left behind as Kakashi was gone, leaving the after image of white light on Obito's retinas, even through his goggles.

Obito blinked a few times, having to lift his goggles and rub his eyes before the white spots left his vision, and in time to see Minato covering Kakashi by throwing kunai to combat ones that were aimed at Kakashi, who said something (Obito couldn't quite hear it over that tearing, cheeping, twittering screech the jutsu was making) and sped on.

...Was it just Obito, or was Kakashi literally going in a straight line? Because he was sure that he had a white line imprinted on his retinas now.

Never mind, it wasn't something that he could focus on after all. There was still more of those clones out there and even if Kakashi did have that flashy jutsu, if he got swamped by all those attackers, clones or not, well...Kakashi annoyed him, but he never wished the guy dead or something even if he drove him to distraction.

Quickly, they nodded to each other, before taking off from their hiding place. Once again, as Obito moved through the forest floor, looking around him, he cursed the fact that his dark eyes had yet to manifest a Sharingan, because this would have been much easier to see where the clones were, or even where their main attacker was.

" _The human really should look down,"_ A voice said and Obito jumped. However, rather than an attacker, there was a snake slithering over the massive mushroom stems and he realised that he was still hearing snake voices. Momentary panic rushed through him until it clicked what the serpent had just said.

_Wait...down?_

But he didn't really have time to think much more on it as, as soon as he did look down, something started to appear, morphing out of the ground - the enemy! Panicked, Obito blew a ball of fire at the figure rising out of the ground and it poofed in smoke.

"Ah...K-Kage Bunshin... he managed weakly. But...he hadn't sensed it there. If him hearing snake voices was a figment of his imagination, then how had that snake warned him of the bunshin that had been there? Hell, anyone would start to feel just a little bit freaked out. Swallowing, he looked around to where the snake had been, only to see the tip of its tail slithering away.

"Don't let your guard down now," he heard a call from Minato, who obviously saw Obito's shaken stance.

"R-right!" he managed to squeak out, trying to shake off the fact that his madness or whatever the hell it was had followed him here, or at least hadn't worn off yet. He really, really hoped this wasn't the start of Obito losing it or something.

Around them there were poofs of smoke going off everywhere even as Rin dragged Obito back to a safe spot once more.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No. No...I'm fine," Obito managed shakily, pulling himself together the best he could. He didn't need Rin to worry. "Where'd Sensei go?"

"I think he saw something and went to help - Kakashi!" Rin broke off in shock as Minato suddenly reappeared, holding onto Kakashi, who was no longer wielding bird-sounding lightning and was gripping his arm at his bicep that was now bleeding. Rin was immediately by his side with her medical jutsu. Obito had only just knelt down to check to see he was actually alright (he was still his team mate after all) when suddenly, Minato was gone again, the only indication he had ever even been there seconds earlier was his bag hitting the ground with a dull thump.

Obito already knew even before the crows took flight that the attacker was doomed.

"Nng," Kakashi winced as Rin pushed healing chakra through the slice and Obito himself had to wince in return. If Kakashi, king of 'I'm an emotionless tool who follows the rules' was actually showing pain then that wound of his had to hurt, or was at least pretty deep. Watching Rin healing him, Obito felt pretty useless standing there. After all, he was the group's pyrotechnist. And he was pretty damned sure blasting around fireballs wasn't going to help.

"Kakashi's injuriy is pretty bad," Minato said, suddenly from behind Obito and he had to stop himself from jumping up a mile. Why couldn't people just announce their presence before appearing and stop giving him a heart attack! "For now, we should retreat and make camp."

"I'm fine!" Kakashi insisted, but he sounded breathless.

_Fine my ass!_

"What do you mean 'Fine'!" Obito said in utter exasperation. He was so obviously not fine! "You selfishly went against Sensei's orders and did something crazy! What the hell were you thinking?"

"I don't have anything to say to an elite Uchiha cry-baby who pissed his pants," Kakashi shot back, glowering.

Obito had to bite back what he really wanted to say. Kakashi wasn't the one who was worried that he was going crazy by thinking he was hearing snake voices after all, even if Kakashi was acting like an idiot. See how calm Kakashi would be after that! But he certainly wasn't going to tell the Hatake that, otherwise he would think that Obito was losing his nerve (or whatever Kakashi even thought he had. Bastard.) Or would just think he was making up excuses again.

Instead, he went onto his usual fall back and lied through his teeth. "The smoke got in my eyes from that Kage Bunshin and made them water!" Obito shot back.

"Do you know the Twenty Fifth Shinobi rule? It states, 'a Shinobi should never show his tears'," Kakashi shot back and Obito almost yelled in frustration. He was talking about Kakashi not killing himself! He wasn't after a lecture on Kakashi's god that was the Rule Book! He was starting to wonder why he was even bothering with the jerk.

"Hey, you two should stop this," Rin quickly intervened before things could get worse

"Take it easy, you two," Minato said calmly, though in a tone that brooked no argument. If Rin's soothing words hadn't shut them up, their Sensei's certainly did. "Kakashi, it's true that rules and regulations are there to be followed, but that's not all there is to it. I've told you before there are also times you need to adapt to the situation."

 _Thank you! Someone's finally talking sense here!_ Obito mentally cheered. "You see!"

"Obito, you too!" Minato said sharply and Obito flinched. Of course, he picked up on his lie... "You're wearing goggles, so there's no way something may've gone in your eyes. If you're going to advocate discipline, don't just mouth the words. Act strong too."

A lump formed in his throat as his teacher's voice had this 'I'm disappointed in you' tone. He didn't yell, didn't raise his voice, but somehow, Obito felt more ashamed at this calm criticism from Minato than he had ever been from any of the Uchiha when they shouted at him for his tardiness.

"And one more thing..." Minato continued softly, looking them over with his sapphire eyes. "Kakashi, you shouldn't use that jutsu again. It's true you have the destructive force and the speed necessary to use it, But, when you're moving too fast, it is near impossible for you to see the enemy counter your attack. Therefore, it's an incomplete jutsu.

"Before we leave, I will say this once again. The most important thing for a shinobi is _teamwork_."

It was probably the first time in a long while that no one answered back. Obito couldn't find it in himself to look anyone in the eye. Somehow, however, he had a feeling that none of them could either, either too ashamed, or too saddened to try and ease the situation.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The team had retreated to the safety of the rock-like area that they had been to before when they had looked over their mission. With Kakashi's arm injured and spirits at a low, travelling onwards seemed foolish. Soon, they had settled down to sleep on the grass, with Minato taking up first watch on the stone. Since he was injured, Kakashi was permitted to sleep, so watch would later be taken over by Obito himself, with Rin taking on the last watch so she could also give Kakashi another dose of healing chakra before they had to continue on the mission.

However, Obito just couldn't relax. He'd even taken off his hitae ate and his goggles, thinking maybe them digging in him was keeping him awake, but even then, he just couldn't get his mind to switch off. His brain felt like it was running around in circles and going nowhere fast. Of course, he couldn't really fool himself. He knew exactly what the problem was. Or rather, what both problems were.

He couldn't help but feel greatly unnerved after he had heard a snake talking to him, not once, but twice now. He also knew that this shouldn't be possible, either. If he'd been any other ninja, then it might have been probable. Bloodlines had been weirder after all. But that was the thing - Obito was an Uchiha. While his birth parents had died before he could ever remember them, the Uchiha would never have fostered a child not of Uchiha blood. But as far as he recalled from times he had asked Oboro, and, occasionally, Tsuneo before he died, about them, neither had mentioned anything about either parent having the ability to talk snake. He was sure even the Snake Sanin, who practically looked serpentine, could not hear or talk to snakes in their own language. Thus, the only thing that Obito could come up with was that he was ill, that he had got some weird substance in him that was causing weird hallucinations, or he was slowly _losing_ it. Neither of these sounded like something good to him, especially when they would be heading into enemy territory the next day.

But it wasn't only that that was buzzing around in his head either. What Minato had said to them, or rather, reminded them of, concerning teamwork... It wasn't that Obito couldn't work with other people - he never had a problem working with Rin, and on occasions (very, very few occasions) he could even fall in sync with Kakashi and work with him. But still, Kakashi made it so damned hard not to lose his temper with him. He just couldn't understand him at all. How could he work with someone he didn't understand, and practically knew nothing about other than his love of the rules and regulations?

In the end, he sighed, opening his eyes. There was no way in hell that he was going to be able to sleep like this. He needed to ask someone something about his worries and concerns. If even one of his questions could be answered, it might at least calm his torrent of thoughts enough that he could get a little shut eye.

Carefully, so as to not wake Rin or Kakashi, Obito crept towards the rock that Minato was sitting on. His eyes were closed, but Obito knew that he was fully aware of everything going on, from the almost full moon, to the owl hooting away into the night, to Obito's movements. Still, to be polite, Obito still spoke out a soft "Sensei?" to get his attention as he carefully climbed up onto the rock.

"What is it?" Minato asked, blue eyes bleached somewhat by the moonlight turned to him, but Obito avoided his eyes for the moment and sat beside him, gripping his knees with his hands. Now that he had his teacher's attention, he wasn't sure where to begin. What if he really was going crazy? What if he thought he was incapable of even continuing the mission? Maybe he should ask about Kakashi first...

"Something's bothering you," Minato added. Not pressing or demanding, just an open invitation and Obito couldn't help but glance over at his teacher/idol and finally met his eyes. Somehow, he knew he could trust him.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he began. "You know, Sensei, when I was late today? I was going to tell you about it then, but Kakashi sort of interrupted me and I didn't get to tell you but...I..." he closed his eyes to still the cold shiver that ran through him. "Sensei...I think there's something wrong with me." He could practically feel the eyebrow raise, though he didn't dare look at his face to see if it was out of incredulousness or concern and pressed on before he could lose his nerve. "After I helped that lady out, I had a run in with a snake and...it spoke to me."

"One of Orochimaru-san's summons?" Minato asked, going to the most logical conclusions. Not that Obito blamed him. Jiraiya, the Toad Sannin and Orochimaru's team mate, was the one who taught Minato when he was a Genin and so Minato probably had some dealings with the man.

Silently, Obito shook his head. "...It wasn't speaking a human language. But I could understand it. It said I spoke in snake tongue, but...but..." he clenched his fists. "That can't be right. I'm an Uchiha, and...no one in my family can speak to snakes, so it can't be a bloodline. I don't know, but I...I'm worried...I mean, at first I thought maybe I wasn't well or something, or...or the Charm that Old Lady gave me in thanks for helping her had something on it-"

"Charm?"

Obito reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the charm, showing it to Minato. In the moonlight, it looked quite innocent in his fingerless-gloved palm. Minato leaned over and looked at it intently for a moment, before he pulled out a cloth and picked it up from Obito's hand, examining it for a long moment. Obito held his breath almost, wondering if there would be some kind of verdict with it even after Minato did a few odd things with it that looked almost like he was checking it with jutsu, or at least by concentrating. He wished it wasn't so dark or that he had Sharingan so he could see exactly what the man was doing. However, eventually he picked it up in his hand and passed it back, shaking his head.

"No...there's nothing on the charm," Minato said finally.

Obito wasn't sure if that was a relief or not, really, considering his other options.

"If it's not that, then what is it?" Obito asked shakily. "I mean, when I was coming to meet you guys, that wasn't the only time that happened either. It happened again when we were fighting that ninja and his clones earlier. A snake was there and it told me to look down just before the clone appeared," he forced himself to look up at Minato's concerned face, trying to keep his fear out of his dark eyes and was most certain that he was failing if the look on Minato's face was any indication. "Sensei...am...am I going mad?" he managed to choke out.

Minato said nothing for a moment, looking up at the moon and Obito almost felt his heart sinking and he looked down in his lap. "...Have you been around snakes before this?" Minato asked.

"Well...no..." Obito admitted. "Most snakes are poisonous around Konoha, and I was always told to stay away from them so I didn't get poisoned..." He glanced over at him. "Do you think it's some kind of bloodline or something? But...I'm an-"

"It could be possible that someone who married into your family at one time had a dormant kekkei genkai," Minato said finally. "And that the bloodline remained dormant for a while until it came to you. Some bloodlines are on the odd side like that. For example, the Hyuuga are born with theirs, though they have to train to increase their range. On the other hand, the Uchiha's remains dormant until requirements are met and it is awakened." He offered Obito a smile. "I don't think you're going insane. Well, any more than you were before," he added with a joking closed eyed smile.

"Sensei!" Obito protested, shoving the man who was now chuckling slightly, flustered, but at the same time, he did feel better. At least he wasn't going mad.

"If you like, once the mission is over, we'll see if we can find out more about it," Minato said, ruffling Obito's hair slightly. "But for now, don't worry too much. It helped you out back in the forest, didn't it? I thought I would have to jump in, but you were able to handle it. If it helps to keep you and your team mates alive, then it's not something too urgent to be concerned over. I highly doubt you're about to turn into a snake or something either."

Obito couldn't help but smile at that, but his heart did feel lighter now that he wasn't worried he was about to go mad in the middle of an important mission. And Minato was right, it did tell him about the hidden Kage Bunshin, so maybe it would be helpful to both him and his team mates later on, like Sensei had said?

Speaking of helping team mates...

Obito's face became a little more serious again. "Actually, Sensei...I...there's something else."

"Oh?"

"About what you said before...in the forest, I mean," Obito said as he looked out at the grassy plains before them. "I know that teamwork is an important thing...but...Kakashi..." he frowned. "He's always calling me a Lazy idiot and a cry baby, belittling me... I know that even though I'm called an 'elite' for being born in the Uchiha clan and all, really...I'm a loser." He sighed. It hurt to admit the fact that he knew he would never be that expected genius that the clan, even now, seemed to sometimes hope from him, but forced himself to continue. This wasn't about him right now. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I acknowledge that Kakashi's an amazing ninja, but..."

Minato's expression became a little more serious too as he once more looked out at the grasslands, a slight frown on his face, though Obito got the feeling that it wasn't because he was annoyed at him, but was more gathering his thoughts.

"Kakashi is the son of the prodigy ninja, Hatake Sakumo-san, who was feared as the Leaf's White Fang," Minato explained after a moment. "In front of his father's name, even the title 'The Legendary Sannin' paled in comparison. Since he spent his early childhood with such a genius, he might look at you guys and see you as unsatisfactory. It's understandable that, in the face of that, his standards would become unnaturally high because of it."

"The White Fang..." No wonder Kakashi always thought Obito weak then. After all, he wasn't even a genius Uchiha as the expectations on anyone with the name of Uchiha had on them, and this Hatake Sakumo seemed like he was one of those super geniuses or something. But still, there was something familiar about that nickname. He wracked his brains for a moment, trying to think exactly why it was so familiar...Oh, wait, he was sure it had been mentioned before by his father, back when he was still alive. "I've heard of him before," Obito said as realisation finally settled in. "He was a hero who died protecting the village. Kakashi never brought him up before..." Which was kind of weird, now he thought about it. All those times he taunted Obito about the Uchiha being geniuses and Obito's less than stellar performances, and never once had he brought up the genius and hero that was his own father.

"He was a magnificent person who was respected by everyone in the village, especially Kakashi," Minato said, voice almost far away, before he suddenly sighed "...At least they did, until that incident occurred."

Obito felt his heart clench with some unknown fear. Somehow, when Minato said it like that, he couldn't help but think of when he and his grandmother learned of Tsuneo's fate. "Incident...?"

Minato hesitated. "Maybe I shouldn't talk about this so freely," he admitted, grudgingly.

"You don't have to-" Obito started, but Minato shook his head

"No, its fine," he said finally. "Since you're on the same team as Kakashi, I want you to know, so you can maybe better understand."

Obito swallowed, licking his suddenly dry lips. "What happened...?"

"Kakashi's father had been disgraced before he committed suicide."

" _S-suicide...?"_ He felt a shiver of horror run through him. Sure, he was from a ninja village and death wasn't uncommon, especially in war time, but still, suicide? What could drive a ninja, who was the best of the best, to such a desperate act?

"Five years ago, he was captain of a top-secret mission to infiltrate an enemy territory," Minato explained. "The mission went bad and he was forced to choose between two options. The success of the mission, or the lives of his comrades. Of course, if he followed the rules of the village, he would have been forbidden to abandon the mission. But to save the lives of his comrades, Sakumo-san put the mission on hold. However, because of that, fire country suffered great losses, and his comrades in the village blamed him. In the end, even the comrades he saved slandered him. Because of that, the incident took its toll, physically and mentally, until finally...Sakumo-san took his own life."

Obito couldn't help but shiver at the thought, feeling sick. After everything, how could they have just turned their backs on him like that, driving him into such despair where living was more a burden than a blessing?

And Kakashi...Obito felt even more sick now. If Sakumo had been so alienated, then there was only one person who could have found out what Sakumo had done...He had to swallow back the bile that had risen in his throat at the thought, even as his eyes couldn't help but search out his sleeping team mate's face.

Civilians who had asked about Obito's parents before had always expressed a sympathy or pity about them being dead, but somehow, Obito couldn't help but think that, as much as he would protest and become angry about it, Kakashi deserved that pity far more.

"From that point forwards, Kakashi never opened his mouth about his father, and he started to insist that the rules be followed above all else," Minato continued before he glanced at the Uchiha once more. "Obito...if only a little, please, try to understand him. Don't bear a grudge against him, he really tries to mean well."

Obito said nothing, part of him wishing now that he had never asked, if only so he didn't feel this horrible tightening in his chest.

A moment later, he felt Minato's hand on his head, ruffling his dark spiky hair once more. "You've got a long day ahead tomorrow. You and your team mates. Get some rest, Obito."

"...Right..." Obito said softly, finally moving from the rock and climbing back to where he had been attempting to sleep before. Silently, as he settled down to rest, he glanced over to where Kakashi was, the young Jonin's face oddly relaxed in sleep, and couldn't help but wonder, if Sakumo hadn't been driven to suicide, if he and Kakashi actually would have become friends, if his heart wasn't so torn from his father's fate.

_Kakashi..._

Somehow, Obito doubted that he would be able to sleep much that night. After all, he had a lot to think about.

**To Be Continued...**


	5. The Fateful Mission: Part Three

The light of dawn had barely touched the horizon before it was time for them to wake for the new day. Obito couldn't help but wince as his body protested to all the tossing and turning he had done the night before as his brain processed all the new information. Sure, he had managed to fall to a light doze in the early hours so he wasn't completely exhausted, but it didn't mean that his body appreciated the hard ground.

 _If I wasn't on a mission, I'd choose a bed any day,_ Obito thought to himself as he stretched the kinks out of his body, before his eye fell on Kakashi, who was sitting silently, top removed while Rin was focusing on healing his wound some more again.

 _Kakashi..._ Seriously, Obito had never even suspected the other boy had had such a hard life before this, but it certainly explained some things about him. He had thought about it long and hard as he had laid sleeplessly that last night. Had Obito, just like Kakashi, only seen what he wanted to see, and not considered why he was as he was?

As they once more moved on, Obito continued to look at the back of the white-haired head of his team mate, frowning ever so slightly as he carefully put things into some form of perspective, though he kept an ear and eye open for any more enemies.

 _Maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite..._ Obito admitted finally once he looked over their short career as Team Minato. He had often complained about Kakashi not really seeing him, but in the end, Obito was guilty of that exact same mistake. _But it's not too late. I can give him a chance. Maybe if I can understand him more, then we might get along. And maybe if we do, he might open up a bit more, maybe loosen up a bit about always nagging me about the rules and regulations too._

That in mind, Obito nodded to himself and continued to follow the rest of his team, making sure to keep his eye open for trouble. If he was going to make peace with Kakashi, then he needed to be serious about it after all. Last thing he needed was to end up getting lax because his head was too deep in his thoughts that some Iwa ninja ended up stabbing him in the back or something. It certainly wouldn't make Kakashi any more inclined to approve of him at any rate if he died because he was careless.

It seemed like both forever and yet no time at all when they reached the bamboo forest at the border of Earth country and he could already feel the tension increase in the others as Minato called for them to halt. This was it, the true start to the mission and everyone knew it.

"From here-on out, we'll split into two groups," Minato said seriously, subtly reminding them of the explanation from the day before. "Everyone, do your best. It was only by chance that yesterday that enemy ninja was scouting by himself. From now on, they'll be team battles." He looked over at them all, both concerned, but trusting in their ability. "Be careful." He cautioned.

 _Well, this is it. First way to try and understand him is acceptance,_ Obito told himself. Gathering his courage, he 'casually' tossed over, "So, let's get going, captain."

If stares were physical blows, Obito was sure he would have been knocked out in that very moment as all three of them stared at him as if he lost his mind. To his horror, Obito could feel the heat rising to his face and he forced himself to look at the bamboo trees stubbornly. He wasn't going to show them just how embarrassed he felt over this. No, definitely not. And he was absolutely going to deny everything if they chose to question him over this, because he was trying dammit, he didn't need them to get all weird just because he called Kakashi 'captain'.

Thankfully, it seemed Minato understood if that knowing smile that flickered over his face was any indication. Reluctantly he met his teacher's eye and saw the Yellow Flash looked distinctly appreciative of Obito's obvious effort to fulfil his request from the night before, making the embarrassment at least somewhat worth it (though seeing Kakashi gaping at him like a goldfish under that mask of his was a plus too. Who knew it was so easy to break that detached aloofness?)

"Right," Minato said approvingly, putting up his hand and, thankfully, breaking the awkwardness as the other two jumped to attention. "Let's go!"

Obito snapped to attention alongside the others. "Yes, sir."

"And...scatter," Minato brought his hand down and Kakashi leapt off into the undergrowth, Obito soon following along with Rin. Glancing back for any sign of Minato, all he could see was disrupted leaves settling once more on the ground. The yellow flash, once more living up to his speed, had already gone. They were now on their own. Obito could only hope that Kakashi would be able to pick up where Minato had left off. However, he set his jaw and followed. He promised himself he was going to give Kakashi a chance and Uchiha Obito never went back on his word.

The journey, rather than rife with battle, was oddly quiet. Perhaps because they had taken out that scout the night before, none of the Iwa ninja were aware of the Konoha ninja currently sneaking into their midst. Which had to be a good thing, right? Otherwise, they'd be fighting for their lives the entire time and even then, it might warn people that the bridge was a target if they worked out what they were aiming. Still, every time they stopped to rest, deactivate some traps that they spotted or check the map, Obito couldn't help but get a feeling as if they were being watched. Still, if Kakashi hadn't noticed anything, then he was probably getting paranoid. After all, they were in enemy territory, so he had good reason to be paranoid, right?

...He could only hope the war would hurry up and end soon, because it had to be getting to him. He'd end up turning into Kakashi by the end of it otherwise. Or a nervous wreck.

Still, he made sure that his eyes were definitely going to be up to the task, making sure to put the eye drops in and kept his goggles on just in case they were attacked. He couldn't get all jumpy like he did in the mushroom forest before, and wasn't going to freak out about the snakes, even if it was creepy. They were going to look into it later, though there certainly wouldn't be any looking into it if he froze in shock and got himself killed.

It didn't hurt to be prepared after all.

However, he should have known the peace was too good to last, because god help someone keep Obito out of weird situations for once.

They had started to join up with the river that would lead them towards Kannabi Bridge, their chakra-charged feet keeping them above the water when it happened. The moment Kakashi paused, sniffed the air and put out his hand in an obvious order to stop, Obito was already mentally cursing whoever invented Murphy's Law, because whoever did really needed to meet his fire jutsu.

A faint twang of a trap being released somewhere within the forest was the only alert they had to the sharpened bamboo blades that suddenly rained down on the group and Obito stepped forwards. After all, this was his expertise.

 _Hello misplaced aggression,_ Obito thought as he ran through familiar seals with expert hands and a moment later, he turned his head upwards. "Gokakyou no Jutsu!"

Fuelled by his chakra, the signature move of the Uchiha clan burst from his mouth, a massive ball of flames shooting up, consuming the bamboo and knocking the remains off course, sending them splashing into the water with thick plunks and the smell of burned wood.

Tense, they quickly moved into position, eyes scanning the forests as the remains floated to the surface of the water. A crack later and someone burst forth from a log that had risen up with the remains, wild hair and smug face, blades attached to his arms razor sharp as he bore down on them and Obito didn't need the glint of his hitae ate to work out the man had to be an Iwa ninja. Of course, before the ninja had even landed, Kakashi was on him, blade out and Obito had to focus to follow it. If he jumped in he might make the situation worse, but maybe if he worked out a pattern he could throw kunai and give some form of back up.

He'd just moved to prepare to throw what the opening came-

A scream, however, broke his concentration and he whipped around just in time to realise that there obviously hadn't been just one person and he cursed himself. How could he have forgotten that Minato himself had even said it was likely to be team battles? But the damage was already done. Rin, unconscious, was hanging on the bulging arm of a tall man, Iwa hitae ate glinting in the light between the trees and a haughty smile on his face.

"I'll hold onto this one," he said smugly.

 _Get your damned hands off her, you...!_ Switching his hold on the kunai in his hand, Obito darted forwards, but Kakashi's sharp order of "Hold it!" startled him into place long enough as the man suddenly was covered by a plume of smoke that Obito moved back from, coughing. By the time he could get control of himself again, both Iwa ninja and their hostage was already gone.

"Dammit!" Obito hissed. How could he have been so stupid?! But maybe if they followed right then, the Iwa ninja wouldn't be able to fully cover their tracks and they would be able to find her. Kakashi wasn't an Inuzuka, but he certainly had a strong sense of smell and he was certain the other could summon dogs too. If that was the case-

"Kakashi-"

"Obito! Don't go after them!"

"...What?"

He must have misheard. He had to have. Because he was sure that Kakashi couldn't have just ordered him to let those Iwa ninja take Rin, their teammate away. Especially not after Minato had, only the day before, reminded them that teamwork was one of the most important things. Surely Kakashi was only stopping him so they could come up with a plan...right? But when he looked at the white haired Jonin's eyes, he knew, in that moment, that it was not the case. This was a situation similar to the White Fang's, right? It had to be that, but was Kakashi possibly thinking what he thought he was thinking...? He couldn't be...

"Do you even realise what you're saying?" Obito said incredulously, desperately hoping that his theory was wrong. Kakashi was the kind to quote the rulebook, but he surely couldn't be as cold as to-

"Yes. The two of us will continue the mission."

Obito couldn't believe what he was hearing. Sure, the logical part of him mind reminded him that Kakashi's father had committed suicide because he had been scorned for putting his comrades first and failed the mission, but even then, it wasn't fully registering. Their team mate, their _friend_ had just been captured. How could Kakashi be so heartless to calmly suggest they abandon her? "But what about Rin!" the Uchiha snapped. Had he just forgotten about her all of a sudden?

"Rin comes later," Kakashi said in that same callous voice that made him want to punch him right then and there. "The enemy wants to know our aim. They won't kill her right away. Luckily, on top of that, Rin is a medical ninja. Even as a prisoner, she should be treated well, as long as she provides medical treatment to the enemy. More importantly, the problem is the enemy discovering our aim. If that information leaks, they'll immediately make preparation to guard the bridge. If that happens, the mission will become too difficult."

"It's all the more reason to get her first!" Obito shot back, still unable to wrap his mind around the thought of just leaving Rin and hoping for the best. They were at war, 'hoping for the best' rarely turned out positive. "What you're saying doesn't take Rin's safety into account! If they want to know what we're up to so bad, who's to say they won't just torture her or something? And what would happen if those guys right now were simply some stupid underlings that don't actually think as logically is you? If she doesn't say anything, she could be killed! Right now, rather than the mission, rescuing Rin takes priority! Don't you see that?"

"...As a shinobi, even if you have to sacrifice your comrades, accomplishing the mission is essential. That is the rule. If the mission fails, the war is prolonged, and many more sacrifices will occur."

"Enough with the damned rule book!" Obito roared, shaking in rage. "What you're saying is only speculation! Could you really throw a comrade who went through life and death with you so easily!" No one...no one could be that callous. Even his family, who constantly spoke of superiority, they wouldn't just abandon another clansman. And even if they complained, they would have saved their team mate and fulfil the mission too. Hell, Tsuneo, the very man whose eyes now served as Obito's, had given his life for the sake of his team.

Kakashi was a genius, right? Why was his vision so tunnelled? Why couldn't he see that they couldn't just leave her like that?

He once more tried to plead with whatever semblance of sanity or logic that his so-called captain had, but he was quickly losing any of his resolve to see things how Kakashi saw them, "Whenever you or I were injured, Rin would always save us with her medical ninjutsu! If it weren't for her, the two of us would have been dead a long time ago!"

_Remember yesterday? Yeah? Well if it weren't for her, you wouldn't even be able to get this far!_

"That was Rin's duty." The Jonin said coldly.

Whatever patience that Obito had left snapped. He barely even realised what he did until the other boy was thrown to the ground, Obito's fist stinging painfully with the force of his punch to the Hatake's face. Even the satisfaction of seeing the shock in Kakashi's dark eyes, or the triumph as getting such a good hit on him was nothing compared to his righteous anger. "I hate you after all," Obito hissed out, wondering if his voice had slipped into that snake language or not.

_You talk like there is no loyalty at all between each other, you talk like its ok to just toss someone aside when it's convenient. You talk like people, like your father, like my father, were fools to think of their comrades, like its ok to spit and tread all over their memories like that! I've had enough of you!_

Obviously, he was at least partially human still as Kakashi, slowly started getting to his feet, hand over his cheek where Obito could already see red forming on the little of the skin of his cheekbone that he could see over that ridiculous face mask, and answered, still in that same cruel, logical way as before. "I don't care if you hate me," he retorted. " _I_ am the captain. You must obey _my_ instructions. No matter what the situation, if the team is scattered, the decisions are made by one person. That's why the rule that squad members must follow the instructions of their captain exists. Obito, you don't have any power, and that's why I'm the squad captain-"

Obito grabbed the straps of his sword holster and practically shook him once, hard, to silence him.

_Enough...I've had enough...I can't listen to him talking as if his damned rules are the be all and end all...that he can just...just decide to toss aside lives just because they don't follow the plan or whatever...He's the captain. The lives of his team are in his hands!_

"Then why do you refuse to save Rin? Only you have the power to save our comrade, right!" Even with Kakashi's warped logic, shouldn't that connect with something in that brain of his? Or had he substituted all his thoughts for the damned rules? The urge to punch him again was almost irresistible, if only to knock some sense into the so-called genius.

But Kakashi just looked at him with the same cold eyes. "If you let your emotions run free and fail an important mission, you're going to end up regretting it. That's why the rule was made that Shinobi should suppress their emotions. You should understand."

Obito remembered what Minato had told him the night before, about Sakumo, and he had to close his eyes and take a few breaths before he punched the guy into unconsciousness. No...no, he didn't understand. How could he understand the idea to just do as Kakashi was suggesting? Even in the end, Tsuneo never regretted risking his life, given his life for his comrades. The only thing he regretted was because he hadn't been there much for Obito, and had never accepted the role as 'father' until the end. But even then, hadn't he died with a smile on his face, knowing that his eyes would forever serve as Obito's? And Sakumo...He bet Sakumo wouldn't have regretted it if everyone hadn't turned on him and made him feel a failure. Still, he forced himself to calm. Maybe Kakashi would respond to reason if he was calmer...

"Rin...Rin made you that medical pack because she was concerned about you," Obito said finally. "She sewed a charm into it, for you." And damn how it hurt to see her happily making that charm, and knowing that it would be going to Kakashi, but he had said nothing, because she was happy, and would be happiest if Kakashi was safe.

_Please Kakashi...please understand..._

"Medical packs and medical ninjutsu are Konoha's brilliant system to increase the success rate of missions," Kakashi said. He seemed more reasonable now Obito wasn't practically holding him off the ground, but at the same time, his voice was just as unemotional as before. "But like I said yesterday, if you accept unnecessary things, it'll just become useless baggage."

 _What...are you saying...?_ "Unnecessary things?" He couldn't seriously be calling his comrades unnecessary...could he...?

Kakashi nodded. "It is necessary for a shinobi to act as a tool to complete the mission. Things like emotions are unnecessary."

Obito couldn't help it. He practically felt numb, unable to comprehend how someone could be so callous. Even if they were ninja, and lived and died in battle, they were still human, they lived, had families, friends, loved ones, their hearts beat. Even the Hokage, the best of the best, smiled and laughed and loved all the ninja of Konoha...he couldn't ever think of any of them as just a tool. How could Kakashi even think that way? That everyone, Rin, himself, Minato-sensei...how could he think of them as being something that could just be discarded...?

"...Are you really serious?" he managed to croak out. "Is that how you really feel?"

Kakashi looked away for a moment, before his dark brown eyes met Obito's inky ones. "Yes, that's right."

_There's no reasoning with you...I give up. I'm done!_

"That's it!" Obito snapped. He was done trying to play voice of reason, he was done trying to pass on Minato's importance of Team work. He'd had enough of hearing Rin described as replicable and 'Useless' and he was done hearing his own father's memory, and the memory of all those who had given their lives for Konoha be torn apart. "You and I were like water and oil from the very start. I'm going to rescue Rin. Do whatever the hell you want," he added, disgusted, as he shoved Kakashi away and turned towards where the Iwa ninja had gone with his true team mate.

For the first time, when Kakashi yelled to him, it wasn't in uncaring drawl, but actually had a note of emotion that Obito had never heard in the other boy's voice before. It was the only reason Obito even paused to hear the bastard's words.

"You don't understand anything! What will happen to those who break the rules!"

Obito closed his eyes, the face of Tsuneo, laying on his deathbed, his cold hand clasped in his own as he convinced Obito to take his eyes, as he called him 'son' for the first and last time, flashed across his mind. Minato's words about the fate of Hatake Sakumo following soon after. He knew full well what the consequences were.

"I believe that Konoha's White Fang was a true hero," he said softly. _I don't believe any of their sacrifices were useless...I don't think any of their sacrifices should be cast aside._

Though he had spoken quietly, his voice almost seemed to resonate in the small clearing. He knew without a doubt that Kakashi heard him. He could practically feel the Hatake freeze behind him even as he opened his eyes once more, looking out at the swaying forest before him.

_I understand...far more than you would believe, Kakashi..._

"It's true that in the ninja world, those who break rules and regulations are called trash. But..."

_And that's why...I believe..._

"...Those who don't care about their friends..." Obito continued, looking back at Kakashi's pale face and wide eyes, staring in him in return, as if he had never seen him before. "They...are even _worse_ than trash. If I'm going to be trash either way, then I'll break the rules! And, if that's not what a true Shinobi is, then I'll _crush_ that idea of a Shinobi!"

With that, he turned around again, walking away, leaving Kakashi standing, stunned and silent behind him. After all, even if no one else would help him, he would save Rin, his friend, his team mate no matter what. As she would have done for them, as Minato-sensei would have done.

Like his _Father_ would have done.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was only as he had gone further into the forests and was most certainly on his own that his anger at Kakashi began to fade, and, in its place, dull panic began to clench at his stomach as the signs of the Iwa-ninja became fewer until he couldn't fully see any tracks. Whichever way he looked at it, he couldn't have been in a worse fix. He was on his own, in enemy territory, the team medic in enemy hands, and practically without a plan. Obito had never been much of a planner. That was Kakashi's shtick. After all, there was a reason he had been made a Jonin commander; he could take a situation and plan around it if he needed to, not to mention with his sense of smell and additional experience, he would have been able to track Rin down. Rin had a good head on her shoulders too and could add in anything that might help them to come out with fewer injuries, but of course, Rin was the one he was trying to save.

Obito, however, was more a person who could plan if thrown into a situation on the fly, but if he actually sat and thought on a plan for too long, he would start to doubt or his imagination would run away with him. His luck also had a habit of his plans, that he had thought long and hard about, getting complicated somehow. Even so, as good as he could be if backed into a corner, now would have been a good time to have an actual thought out strategy. Rin's life was on the line.

Once more he cursed Kakashi's thoughtlessness. As much as he hated him at that moment, if the guy actually thought around the rule book he had for a brain, he would have been really useful to formulate a plan of action to save Rin.

But what exactly could he do?

 _Enough, Obito!_ The Uchiha scolded himself, clapping his hands against the sides of his face. _Focus! There is no Kakashi and no Rin right now. This isn't the time to be getting depressed. Think. What do you have that could help you track down Rin's location?_

Well, if what Minato had told him yesterday was right, and the fact he had heard snakes on more than one occasion now, then it was likely he had some ancestor outside the Uchiha clan with some serpentine ability like Orochimaru (though it felt weird to consider he might have some relation to one of the Sannin, but he doubted that was the case. Probably just a person from a family with similar abilities), which meant that Obito had the ability to talk to snakes, so that first snake had pointed out. A Snake helped him before back in that mushroom-tree forest they had battled that scout in the day before. There was a possibility that a snake might have seen where the Iwa ninja had taken Rin, and if Obito asked them, they might be able to tell him where she was now held captive. Once he found out where she was, then he could think of a way of saving his team mate. After all, how could he save her if he had no idea where she was?

But first he needed to find a snake...otherwise that plan was dead before it even started.

As it was, it seemed that his weird brand of luck was with him that day, as no sooner had he started to look around, he did find a snake, a small one, probably native to these parts just slithering through the leafy floor and pounced before the thing could fully register a human was there. "You, snake, I need to talk to you!" he demanded quickly, pulling the thing up with both hands. "Don't bite me or anything, ok? I need your help."

The snake hissed a little, as if surprised, though Obito wasn't sure if it was from him being manhandled or because Obito had demanded he talk to it. However, it recovered rather quickly, flicking its forked tongue at him irritably. _"How rude. Don't you know it's uncouth to just snatch up a snake like that?"_

"Sorry, sorry..." Obito managed, trying not to twitch at hearing a snake talking to him. Honestly, it was one thing knowing it might be a kind of bloodline or something, or at least talking about it as speculation, but it was entirely another to actually have it happening to you when, only the day before, said person had thought it was a symptom of some weird kind of insanity. "I don't know...uh...much on snake lore and I've had a bit of a stressful day."

" _Are you shedding? It's a very stressful time, though I was unaware two leggers could shed."_

"No...nothing like that. My...a friend of mine was taken captive by some men and I'm trying to find her."

" _A mate, perhaps?"_

Obito almost flushed, but forced himself to agree. "S-something like - wait, never mind that!" Obito didn't need to make excuses about who Rin was to a snake that probably didn't know what he meant by 'team mate', "Have you seen any humans coming this way recently?"

" _Other than you, you mean?"_ The snake asked, tilting its head slightly before lifting its tail and jabbing it in a direction in the forest. _"I saw two with one being carried heading towards a cave. There's human scent all over that way, I could taste it."_

Now this was more like it! "Great! Come with me, I need you to show me the way! I'll put you back wherever you want as soon as I get my friend back, alright?"

" _Not like you're giving me a choice..."_

Obito ignored its complaint as he darted in the direction that the serpent had originally pointed out, allowing the snake to coil around his arm as he did so to avoid falling at the Uchiha's speed. Right now, he wouldn't worry about his ability to talk to snakes. He wouldn't worry about Kakashi's twisted philosophy. What mattered was finding his friend and team mate and saving her from whatever fate the Iwa-ninja had in store for her.

For now, that was all that mattered.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Is this the place?"

" _This is the place."_

It had taken them a little while, but Obito had managed to get through the thick forest, following the snake's directions as the reptile itself (now wrapped lightly around his neck like a thick necklace) would point out where he needed to go with a nod of its head or a prodding of its tail. It was the weirdest guide that Obito had ever had in his entire time as a ninja, but it was most certainly useful. Had he been alone, he would have definitely taken much longer to pick up on the Iwa-ninja's trail. Time, after all, really wasn't something that he had on his side either. The longer he took to find Rin, the longer they had to do...whatever they were doing to her, which most certainly wasn't a pleasant thought.

The place that the snake had lead them to was some kind of cave deep within the forest, though Obito wasn't sure if it was a cave that had always been there or if it was one created by the Iwa-ninja themselves with some form of earth jutsu. He'd seen weirder things after all, so it wasn't that farfetched that they might actually create some kind of base for themselves. Obito himself was currently knelt within the branches of one of the large trees, looking down at the base with the snake still coiled around him, and inside that cave was the Iwa-ninja...and Rin.

"Can you tell how many are in there?" he asked the snake quietly, hoping that it wouldn't get irritable by him pretty much forcing the thing to work with him right now. As it was, the snake was either in a good mood or was just fairly amiable, as it moved its head forwards a bit, flicking its tongue out to taste the air.

" _Three,"_ the Snake hissed after a moment. _"One with a taste like herbs - the female who you're looking for. There are also two others who taste of earth and steel."_

Well, at least there wasn't more than two in there but he could still feel a tremor of apprehension running through him. One of these guys at the very least could go toe to toe with Kakashi of all people from what he had seen, and who knew what the other could do. It was only really now that he realised just what he was getting himself into. He swallowed as fear gripped him. He was outmatched, outmatched and alone with a snake who he had pretty much negotiated only for help to be brought here, nothing more. How was he, an 'average' ninja going to battle two ninja who even Kakashi, the group genius, had had trouble with?

 _Stop it, Obito, stop it right now!_ He ordered himself, smacking his cheeks to shake those terrified thoughts away. _Stop doubting yourself. You can do this. You have to do this for Rin's sake, or else how will you ever look Sensei in the eye again? Suck it up. You are not. A. Quitter!_

" _Human-Speaker?"_

"It's nothing," Obito told the snake - was that concern he heard in its voice? - as he pulled out a kunai from his pouch and gripped it tightly in his hand, his knuckles almost white on its cool steel surface, while with his other hand he dislodged the snake from around his neck and placed it on the branch carefully. "You should find a safe place so you don't get hurt until I'm done, then I'll take you wherever it is you want to go once I've got Rin, alright?"

" _Are you sure?"_

"Definitely," Obito nodded, offering it a shaky smile, though he was sure it didn't mean much to the snake. Looking back to the cave once more, he took a deep breath in, then let it out slowly, reading the kunai in his hand. "Alright," he murmured to himself. "Let's go."

However, rather than a response from the snake, a voice, the same one that had come from the man who took Rin, spoke. Right. Behind. Him.

"Go where?"

Horror shot through Obito as the blood shot away from his face in dread. Spinning around, seeing the snake rearing back with its hood flared out and hissing as the man that had a blade raised and pointed at him, Obito could only feel terror run through him.

_Shit!_

Obito quickly moved to launch the kunai in his hand, trying to fight passed the panic that coursed through him even as the snake struck out, aiming for the man's leg. The man himself jumped back, giving Obito enough of an opening to throw his kunai. The man had an amazing amount of balance though as he arched back, his blade slicing through a couple of brown hairs, but it only seemed to annoy the man than deter him. Glaring, he darted forwards again and Obito dived out of the way, snatching up the snake just in case the Iwa ninja decided to slice the thing up for helping him, trying to ignore the creature's rather impressive swearing in favour of actually trying to think up a plan before the man killed him. However, just as he was about to swing around and throw another kunai at the charging man, a flash of white shot passed him and suddenly, a figure was in front of him, slicing with a gleaming blade through the Iwa-ninja's flank jacket and causing a cry of surprise and pain from the man, who barely managed to jump back in time before the blade could cut through him further.

He stared, kunai held loosely in one hand, snake hissing curses under its breath as it's coils wrapped around his other arm, unable to do much but gape at the familiar back of the very teammate he had only an hour or so ago punched and yelled at for abandoning their friend and teammate.

"K-Kakashi..."

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
